Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind
by Esellyn
Summary: Mito activates a seal and wakes up with a five-year-old blond Uzumaki child leaning over her in what's called the Forest of Death. She is not pleased.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N) So, I was feeling the need for time travel, and more adorableness, and so this happened. Also, I went on a 'I must make up a culture and history' thing for Uzushiogakure, so I really wanted to display that, so yeah. If Mito's OOC, sorry, actually, scratch that, I'm not sorry in the slightest. We don't get much of her personality anyway, so there. **

Mito woke up slowly, the sound of a forest filtering in through her ears, the dry taste of not having drunk water before she slept, the slight scent of decaying leaves topped with the scent of healthy ones, dappled patterns of light dancing across her closed eyes.

"Hey, lady, you alright? This isn't a good place to sleep," a kid, young, perhaps five. No slight rasp that would've already been there if he'd been an Uchiha, not that they would have a five-year-old out on patrol.

Mito finally managed to properly open her eyes, finding a small yellow-haired child with blond hair leaning over her. She blinked up at him, and he smiled brilliantly. She gently smiled back, noting the lack of baby fat on a face with three whisker-like markings, or were they scratches? Either way, a sure sign of lack of food for extended periods of time. Baby fat was not easily lost, and she was very dismayed at what that implied. "Hello child," she replied gently.

"Uh, yeah, hello and all, but this still isn't a good place to sleep. S'mthin might eat you!"

Mito managed to sit up, sensing the barest traces of chakra in her system. She'd be wiped out for a while more, unable to perform any jutsu. Well, maybe she could do the clone jutsu now, for once in her life. Being an Uzumaki meant she was pretty much guaranteed to never do a standard clone. Tobirama's shadow clone, however, was easy as pie. "What do you mean something might eat me?"

"Well, the crazy snake lady said there are big thingies in here that wanna eat people! I've never seen one though," he added the last bit as almost an afterthought.

Mito frowned, extending her senses a bit. The guppy, something Uzushio's people tended to call their children, had a lot of chakra for someone his age. Heck, he had a lot of chakra for people twice, or maybe even three times his age. "Guppy, what's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki!" the guppy chirped, grin dimming a little as if he expected a negative response.

Mito blinked. Oh, that explained the large amounts of chakra, but there was something else, something not quite there, but still quite influential. She was not as good of a sensor as Tobirama, but she could sense the Kyuubi in the child. An impressive seal indeed to hide the creature from even her.

Apparently emboldened by her lack of a negative response, the guppy forged ahead. "What's a guppy?"

Mito's expression changed into horror. The guppy, an Uzumaki child, didn't know what a guppy was? "It's a baby fish."

Naruto tilted his head cutely. "Why'd you call me a fish?"

Mito composed her expression, forcing a soft smile onto her face to hide the horror, and wish to go strangle Hiruzen, who'd clearly left the guppy on his own. That teenaged brat would know her fury for this. "It's a fond nickname the Uzumaki use for their children."

Naruto wrinkled his nose, confusion was written across his face. "There are more Uzumaki?"

Mito was taken aback. "Guppy, where are we?"

"In Konoha!" Came the bright reply.

Mito spread her senses just a bit, finding that it was her husband's chakra in the trees, marking this spot as one of the many parks he'd set up. Why would it be dangerous, her husband wasn't exactly fond of putting people in danger. "Who's the Hokage?"

"Jiji!"

Mito frowned. "What's their name?"

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, I forgot. I've always called him jiji."

Mito frowned deeper. "Would his name be Sarutobi Hiruzen?"

Naruto squinted and tilted his head. "I think? Maybe?"

Mito narrowed her eyes. "Come guppy, I believe I need to have a chat with your Hokage. A very long chat."

"What's your name?" Naruto asked, blinking up at her innocently.

"Mito Uzumaki," she told him kindly, smiling at him. She stood up, brushing her robes off. Idly she noticed her hair had come undone and was now cascading down her back in a stunning shower of bright red.

Naruto smiled back, bright as the sun itself. "Are you related to me?"

"Possibly, I will have to check with Hiruzen to make sure," Mito allowed. "If you must, you may call me nee-chan."

Naruto beamed, offering her two of her three clips, one of her hairpins, along with the mostly ornamental golden crest that actually hid her fuuinjutsu supplies. She clipped her bangs back with the clips, tied the crest around her waist, and stuck the hairpin in a hidden pocket in her right sleeve.

"Come guppy," Mito commanded. "Do you know the way out?"

Naruto nodded happily. "This way!" He led her out, ducking between trees, jumping over the occasional log, and generally being a child. Mito followed and watched him fondly. Her children were no longer this small, hadn't been for a while, they'd been self-sufficient for what felt like ages, doing missions, and generally earning their own keep.

They got out of the park soon enough, and Mito narrowed her eyes at the rock face that had been empty last time she saw it. "There are four faces up there."

"Yeah, the Fourth Hokage died fighting the fox. He's a hero! I wanna be just like him!" Naruto beamed at the monument. "I'm gonna be Hokage, believe it!"

Mito smiled kindly at him. "I'm sure you will."

He looked taken aback as if no one had told him he could be Hokage.

"Come along, guppy, let us find your Jiji," Mito moved off with a slight rustle of her robes. Naruto quickly moved up beside her, holding tentatively onto her sleeve. She permitted it, knowing that the guppy needed the extra reassurance.

As they walked through the village, Mito got a lot of odd looks, and the guppy got looks of hatred and disgust. A quarter of the way to the Hokage's Tower, Mito bent down and scooped Naruto up in a single motion, bringing him up to rest on her hip, almost half hidden by her hair, which she hadn't bothered to try pulling up again. He didn't protest, just held onto the collar of her kimono. She would probably have to exchange it for something that leaned more towards mission wear, as that seemed to be what most people favored.

She made her way into the Hokage's office, keeping her head high, and wrapping Naruto in a protective blanket of chakra that kept him from sensing the pointed blasts of killing intent and powerful chakra that let her into the tower. No one was with Hiruzen at the moment, except for what she assumed was ANBU, at least not what her rapidly improving senses told her. She opted to storm right into his office, hair lifting slightly around her head and waving in an imaginary wind. Which reminded her why she usually had her hair up. Women from the Hogo Uzu branch of the Uzumaki clan were notorious for their bloody red hair, powerful chakra, and how their hair seemed to act of its own accord when they were angry.

Hiruzen looked up as the door crashed open, and Mito was happy to see the horrified look spread across his face before it was carefully hidden. The ANBU were clearly going to try and protect Hiruzen, but she quickly eliminated any thoughts of that with heavy oppressive chakra and killing intent together. Naruto she left wrapped in calm chakra, keeping him in his own little bubble, immune to anything happening outside.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi, you have a lot of talking to do," Mito said, dangerously low. She switched her attention to Naruto for a moment. "Guppy, I'm going to have some very strong words with your Jiji. I can make it so you can't hear it, would you like me to do that?"

Hiruzen seemed to only now recognize that she had Naruto balanced on her hip. One of the ANBU, a Hatake, if her sensing of his chakra was right, defied all logic, and jumped down, making a move for Naruto before she stopped him with a very pointed glare that had him freezing in place again.

Naruto shook his head, burying his face in the shoulder of her kimono. "No, I'll hear."

Mito smiled softly at him. So much like her husband, and it was adorable. She turned back to Hiruzen, and the fierce kunoichi she had never stopped being was back to the surface. "Sarutobi, you are in so much trouble. Why was an Uzumaki kid, and a Hogo Uzu one at that, if Tobirama's teachings about sensing bloodlines, clans, and relatives through chakra is correct. The guppy should be in Uzushio. Why isn't he?"

Hiruzen gulped. "Well, Mito-sama, you see, Uzu was destroyed at the beginning of the Second Shinobi World War."

Mito raised an eyebrow. "Did you not assist them?"

Hiruzen winced, it was clear he did not want to talk about it. "We didn't get the news until it was all over. There was nothing we could do."

Mito glared daggers at him. "I am of half a mind to take Naru-chan here there myself, as most of the seals will most likely be active, and we would be safe there."

Distress started rolling in the Hatake's chakra. Good, the emotion-sensing part of her sensing was coming back. He clearly wasn't saying anything, but Mito could tell he wanted to.

Hiruzen stared at the guppy as though he wished he had been deafened. "You can't do that, Mito-sama."

"Oh? And why's that, Hiruzen-kun?" She placed sarcastic emphasis on the suffix, and he winced. "I'm in my prime, you clearly are not. Clearly, you can't force me. Was there something about the guppy you don't want him hearing?" She was absolutely smashing any calm and dignified air she'd put up before, but right now, she just didn't care. The guppy was clearly alone, and not doing well. That calm and dignified persona had been at least partially to counter Hashirama's boisterous cheer anyway.

Hiruzen actually winced this time, distress, a sense of 'she's right', and fear running through his chakra. The Hatake twitched, distress tainting his normally white chakra a darker color.

**(A/N) I like the Zoo. We went to the Zoo today. Also, it's Danzo's birthday today, so do what you wish with that. Curse his name, celebrate, I don't care. Either way, HIIII! **


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Hi! *quivering happily* So many people liked it, and I'm so happy! I woke up the next morning to 26 emails and that's more then I've ever woken up to or seen after an extended period of time, and I was so happy! And people were still finding it and liking it three days later, and that like doesn't happen to me, and I'm so ecstatic! ...I'm rambling. Sorry. **

**To be clear, Mito is incredibly curious, she just knows how to suppress it until she can get the information she wants. Guest person: Thanks! I agree, Mito doesn't appear enough. Neither does Tenten, come to think of it, I gotta do more of her… TBNRkurama: HII! Thanks!**

Mito had won, and she knew it. The guppy was still half-hidden by the long curtain of red pouring down her back and shoulders, and she had all of the cards in her hands. "I will be taking custody of him, as I am from his clan," Mito ordered in a brisk voice. "We'll see later about anything else. I'll want the files by tonight at the latest."

Hiruzen nodded, and she took pity on him and the ANBU, releasing her chakra and killing intent. She could see and feel the ANBU nearly falling from their perches in relief, and she scoffed mentally. In her husband's time, the ANBU had to be able to stand up to Madara's killing intent, which even she couldn't match. Perhaps the chakra was a bit much though.

"I will alert you should I so choose to leave the village," she informed him. She swept out of the door, instinctively heading right for the Senju compound.

Naruto was trembling slightly. "Are you going to hurt Jiji?"

Mito smiled softly at him. "No, guppy, I won't. Unless he stands in my way. If he really, really deserves it, he will get what he deserves. How's that?"

Naruto nodded, clutching at her kimono. She entered the compound without a second thought, the seals she'd installed in the place allowing her and her small charge in. To anyone else, they'd just disappeared.

She set Naruto down, feeling her chakra reserves. Just enough to make a shadow clone. Good. "Alright Guppy, why don't you wander around and explore for a bit? I'll get the main house set up if it isn't already."

"You live here?" Naruto asked, looking around in amazement.

Mito smiled, looking at the empty compound. "That I do. Now you do to! We can go get your stuff in a bit. After you've had a bath."

"I don't need a bath!" Naruto protested.

Mito gave him a very unimpressed look. "Guppy, we both need a bath. You will be going first as soon as you're done the exploring, and I'm done setting up the main house."

Naruto sighed, but relented, running off to explore the compound. Mito sighed, and quickly made the shadow clone, handing over her scroll for money. She always carried a substantial amount with her, especially during seal testing, as she had learned her lesson when she tried a seal and was stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the clothes she had come in. Now she always had camping supplies, a bit of food, and money. And weapons. Can't forget the weapons.

The main house was indeed clean and ready for use. She put sheets on the master bed, and one of the children's rooms, taking care to make the beds neatly. She made sure everything still worked fine, which it did, and began putting away what little food she'd carried with her. There were already spices and other fairly basic food things in the kitchen, including cooking utensils and eating utensils too.

Naruto came back before the clone, and she sent him off to bathe, with instructions to get clean, or she'd do it herself, and he wouldn't like that. He scurried off really quick after that, enough that she was struck by his resemblance to a mouse.

The clone came back with a good amount of food, it would be too much for any normal person, but they were a pair of Uzumaki, they would decimate any food placed in front of him.

Her and the clone worked quickly, cooking food while Naruto was busy getting clean. With how odd the ingredients were, Mito stuck with something she was very good at making. Ramen. An Uzumaki staple if there ever was one, and something she was fond of. Well, perhaps 'fond of' was a bit of an understatement. She sent the clone off to check on the guppy, as the food was almost done, and he hadn't come out yet. The clone dispelled, memories crashing into her mind, and not two seconds later, the guppy slammed into her, babbling about how she was the coolest for making ramen.

"Alright, calm down guppy, bowls are in there, chopsticks in there, why don't you set the table?" Mito pointed to where the eating utensils were, and Naruto happily bounced off, and Mito noticed the Uzumaki spiral on the back of his shirt. She would have to adjust it for what she guessed was his branch. The Hogo Uzu branch of the Uzumaki was particularly good at containing biju, their chakra was special, particularly specialized for sealing things away, binding things. Females of the branch had the chains Kekkei genkai. Uzushio's bloodlines weren't able to be awakened by males, unfortunately. She picked up the pot, setting it on the table. Naruto was carefully setting a second pair of chopsticks down. Mito took one of the seats delicately, Naruto plopping into the other.

"Thanks for the food!" Naruto chirped as Mito ladled ramen into his bowl. He'd grabbed one of the designated 'Uzumaki' bowls, luckily, as they were the largest bowls in the cupboard. It was a bit of a teasing nickname, but really, only the Hyuuga could ever hope to match an Uzumaki in eating. The two clans weren't very fond of each other for multiple reasons, and that was one of them. The others included that temperaments never meshed well, and that the Uzumaki had set their children on the Caged Bird Seal ever since they'd seen it, so every single Uzumaki had the key to remove the seal, and the ability to use it. So, yeah, they weren't very fond of each other.

Mito just smiled at him and served herself up some, eating just as fast as he was, but with far more grace and manners.

Once they finished dinner, Mito managed to get the guppy into bed, persuading him into wearing one of her kid's old clothes. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it would work for a while. She sent off another shadow clone, instructing it to collect the files, as they should be ready, inform Hiruzen that she and Naruto would be at the Senju compound, and collect Naruto's stuff from his apartment.

The clone came back three hours later and handed her a storage scroll with Naruto's possessions. She quickly unsealed, sorted through, then placed his stuff in his room. The guppy didn't have much, and she was well aware she'd need to go clothes shopping for her, as her clothes were a bit outdated, but it appeared she may have to grab stuff for him as well.

She was of half a mind to just go to Uzushio, if just to be contrary but knew the guppy was rather attached to the Hokage, and couldn't bear to do that to him. They'd have to visit at least, perhaps after they got settled in.

Mito told him about the Kyuubi that next morning.

"Naruto, guppy, we need to have a chat, is that alright?" Mito asked.

Naruto tilted his head. "Sure, what about?"

"A giant fox," Mito said, sitting down, and gesturing for Naruto to sit down next to her. He did so, and she continued. "Specifically, the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Naruto looked puzzled. "It died, didn't it?"

Mito heaved a sigh. "Guppy, biju can't just die. They have to be sealed into things. People, specifically. They're called Jinchuuriki. I was one, but I am not anymore, due to how I got here."

"What's that got to do with me?" Naruto asked, screwing up his face.

Mito sighed softly. "Pull up your shirt so we can see your stomach. Do you know how to use chakra?"

Naruto pulled up his shirt, then looked at her, confused. "Chakra?"

"It's what ninja use," Mito said patiently. "To do all their fancy moves."

Naruto thought about it for a bit longer, then nodded. "I got it! So, how do you use it?"

"Well, imagine you have a giant river flowing through you, and put an imaginary rock in it, forcing it to pool in your stomach. Like moving ramen noodles to the side to sip the broth."

Naruto screwed up his face again, and slowly, the black seal faded into view.

"Good job Naruto, now keep doing that, and look at your stomach," Mito instructed gently, staring in awe at the seal. It was even better than hers had been, and she'd made hers herself. The Fourth certainly knew his way around seals.

Naruto looked down at his stomach and shouted in surprise. "What's that!"

"That, guppy, is a seal. It contains the biju. You are its jailor, and it is your prisoner."

Naruto screwed up his face. "Isn't that kinda mean? Forcing them into prisons?"

Mito sighed, a slight smile on her face. "Perhaps, but it keeps Konoha safe, and the rest of the world. While some biju are content to hide away in unpopulated areas of the world, others, like the Kyuubi, are not. I was the first Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, your mother was the second, and you are the third. You are keeping the village safe in a way the Hokage cannot. In some ways, you're even more important than the Hokage. The Hokage can be replaced, but finding a new jinchuuriki, especially for the Kyuubi, is no easy feat, especially with Uzushio destroyed and her people dead."

"What's Uzushio?" Naruto asked, dropping his shirt and looking at her curiously.

"Where," Mito corrected gently. "It was a Hidden Village, and it was made up of almost entirely the Uzumaki clan."

Stars were in Naruto's eyes. "I had that much family?"

Mito smiled. "Yes, you could've, if they were alive today. Uzushio wasn't very big, but they were one of the more powerful villages. Uzumaki have a lot of chakra, more than most people. The Uzumaki clan, myself included, were seal masters."

"Ooo! What's that mean?"

Mito poked him in the belly, making him giggle. "That. And stuff even more complex. Biju have so much chakra, they almost never run out. And we can contain them with just some ink and a brush."

Naruto pulled up his shirt again, making the seal fade into view. "Really?"

"And really good ones, like me, can create seals with just a touch. You have to know the seal really well to do that though."

"You can touch something and do this?" Naruto asked, amazed.

Mito nodded, preparing one of her favorite seals, a seal that set something on fire without actually burning it. It was great fun to apply the seal to herself, and go into battle wreathed in fire. Madara had certainly approved of it. She touched the table, and black lines spread out from her fingertips. She removed her hand, and the seal flashed bright blue before the entire table lit on fire.

**(A/N) I said she had a personality, didn't I? Haha, she's a bit of a pyro. What self respecting Uzumaki that spent copious amounts of time around an Uchiha isn't? *grins* I'm happy. **


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) HI! Guest: Thanks! I believe that is a headcanon, the Uzumaki clan is rarely mentioned as a proper clan, and as far as we know, only females have exhibited the kekkei genkai. TBNkurama: *snickers* Well, Mito's intelligent enough to remind him only to use it in proper battle, so there's that. Don't worry though, you'll see more of it. Alright, so this chapter will probably be edited if I do choose to add more to Uzushio, like a third clan or something. So I'll alert you if that happens, and you can reread this. Or don't, up to you.**

Naruto's mouth fell open, almost comically. "The table's on fire!"

"And it isn't burning," Mito agreed, pride lacing her voice. "Don't touch it though, it will still burn you. It'll go out in another minute or two."

Naruto remained staring at the table until the flames went out, the black seal that had been applied fading away. "That's awesome!" He declared. "I wanna do that!"

Mito chuckled. "In a day or two, I can start teaching you sealing. I will warn you in advance, you can't make seals like that at first. On the plus side, you can make explosive tags almost right away."

"Explosive tags?" Naruto asked, almost reverently.

Mito grinned. "Oh, guppy, you'll love this. Just give me a moment to change into something a bit more adapted for this kind of thing." She disappeared into her room, and was out again in just under a minute, dressed in her standard mission clothes.

Her and Naruto found one of the Senju training grounds and Mito applied a small explosive tag to a post on one side of the training ground and drew Naruto back so they were almost halfway across the field. She held up her fingers in a one-handed ram seal, and the post exploded spectacularly.

She loved the expression on Naruto's face, a mix of amazement, wonder, and curiosity, all wrapped up in a bubble with a generous dose of pyromaniac glee. Oh yes, Madara would've liked this one. Tobirama would have despaired at yet another pyro to pester him about putting fires out.

Mito chuckled. "Would you like to hear more about the clan?"

His attention immediately switched to her, and he nodded eagerly.

"Well, it would be a bit annoying if we just called everyone Uzumaki as there were getting close to 700 Uzumaki alone, so we had registered branches within the clan. Each branch had about 100-130 members."

"Like branches of a tree?" Naruto asked.

Mito nodded, smiling. "Sure, like branches of a tree, or tentacles of a kraken. I'll explain what those are later. There was also a second clan within Uzushio, a small clan, not quite as many people, perhaps thirty or forty."

Naruto nodded attentively.

"This second clan was the Uzuki clan. They specialized in Musical genjutsu. Musical genjutsu are illusions that have been cast by someone playing music. A single Uzuki could only play one instrument at a time, that's true, but with their control over their chakra, and their ability to pay attention to a thousand different things at once, they could sound as though they had an invisible orchestra at their backs."

Naruto's mouth fell open. "How'd they do that?"

"They took some of the sound from their own instrument and manipulated it with their chakra so it sounded like whatever they needed, so a Uzuki playing a flute, could make it sound like they had a tuba playing alongside them."

"What's a flute? And what's a tuba?" Naruto asked, wrinkling his nose in confusion.

"A flute is pretty much a stick with holes, it is one of the highest of the instruments. A tuba is one of the lowest instruments, and is a big tube, but bent into a weird shape."

"Oooh," Naruto said, nodding as his confused expression cleared. She could always find one and show it to him later.

"We're both from the same branch of the Uzumaki clan, the Hogo Uzu branch, or Protective Whirlpool."

"That sounds cool," Naruto agreed.

Mito nodded. "The Hogo Uzu branch specializes in barrier seals and seals that, well, seal stuff away. Like the one you have on your tummy." She poked him once for emphasis, and he giggled. "Our branch also has a bloodline. But boys can't inherit it, unfortunately."

Naruto's mouth dropped open again. "Really?"

Mito grinned. He didn't seem too down about not being able to awaken the kekkai genkai, and that was good. "Yep, wanna see?" The guppy nodded really fast, and she chuckled, a chakra chain coming from her back. "See?"

"Woah," he gasped, mouth wide open.

Mito chuckled. "Close your mouth, bugs will fly in. The Hogo Uzu branch defended Uzushio, their barriers defended our island, they kept intruders out, and kept our buildings intact, and protected from the ocean."

His mouth shut with a click, but the stars in his eyes didn't fade.

"There's also the Kieru Shio, or Disappearing Tides, branch. They specialize in genjutsu and meshing that with seals. They wove illusions around them, they hid Uzushio, and our squads from view so we could attack unnoticed. They used a different kind of genjutsu from the Uzuki clan, but the result was much the same."

Naruto nodded, and Mito could almost see his mind working to file that away.

"They don't have a bloodline, but they're still really cool. The Iyashino Shio branch is our medical branch. They specialize in medical ninjutsu, and healing. They're really good at healing chakra related things, especially with their bloodline, that means whenever someone bites them, their chakra goes into the person and heals them. They were our healers, using special seals that connected them to every shinobi in our forces, and they healed them all."

"Woah, that sounds really cool!"

"And then there's the Akai Arashi or Red Storms branch. They were the ninjutsu masters. They bent wind and water to their will, and the earth quaked before them," Mito said, using her, admittedly a bit rusty, storytelling skills. "They were on the front lines of our forces, using their wind and water ninjutsu to devastate the enemy, and using their seals to disrupt the very air around them so no one else could use jutsu against them!"

Naruto gasped. "They sound so cool!"

"And then, we had the Difenda no Shio, the Defender's tides. They were taijutsu masters, using many styles to their advantage, their stamina alone meant they could take on a full battalion and still be standing afterward." She may be exaggerating a bit, just for Naruto's sake, but it really was only a little bit. "They switched styles often, confusing their enemy, and using seals that they themselves used for training to their advantage, applying them to enemies to make them feel as though gravity had increased tenfold, or like they were trying to walk through solid earth."

Naruto gaped at her. "That's so cool! Why isn't Uzushio still here today if they could do that?"

Mito sighed sadly. "Uzushio was powerful, yes, but even the best nations can fall. An intruder, a traitor, someone let down the barriers, allowing Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri into our borders. It took three nations to take Uzushio down, and they paid dearly for it. Uzushio was destroyed, yes, but it took a good portion of the other nation's armies with it. No one's been back there yet."

"I wanna go back there someday," Naruto said softly. "I wanna see where I came from."

Mito smiled at him. "Don't worry guppy, I'll take you there someday, perhaps in a couple of months. We'll wake Uzushio, and find what was left behind."

"So, nee-chan, what's a kraken?" Naruto asked, evidently remembering their earlier conversation.

Mito grinned. "I was waiting for you to ask that. Come, there's a lake just over here. I'll show you there."

Naruto eagerly followed her to the lake, where she summoned Kaiyo, one of the smaller krakens. Smaller, meaning she could fit into the lake pretty easily.

Kaiyo was a beautiful creature, dappled navy blue and bright orange, which Naruto evidently thought was awesome. Her eight tentacles were tipped with barbs, and Mito knew there were venom sacs just behind the barbs. She was probably 20 feet long from top of head, to tentacle tip.

"Woah! You're so pretty!" Naruto exclaimed. "Like, my favorite colors!"

Kaiyo gave the rumblely, chirpy, squeaky, and just generally odd sound that was the kraken's laughter. "Thank you, you're pretty cute, hatchling. Hello Mito-chan."

"Hello Kaiyo, how have you been?"

"Bored, no one's called me to sink any ships since the destruction of Uzu."

Naruto's mouth fell open again. "You can sink ships?!"

Kaiyo laughed again. "What, did you think my size was just to show off? I can sink smaller ships easily. You should see the boss kraken though, he could easily sink an entire armada. All at once too, he's massive!"

"Kaiyo is one of the smaller kraken," Mito explained.

"Woah," was all that Naruto managed.

Mito thought she'd sufficiently distracted him from the fact he had the Kyuubi in him. Also, this was adorable. She'd just have to find the contract, and then he could sign it!

"Could the other branches do this?" Naruto asked suddenly, looking up from where Kaiyo was letting him poke at one of her tentacles.

"Well, they could summon, but they didn't summon krakens," Mito said, smiling. "Keiru Shio summoned sirens, special creatures that sang beautiful melodies that ensnared people in genjutsu, drawing them overboard where they would eat them. The Uzuki clan shared these summons. Their songs enchant anyone who can hear, drawing them down to a watery death. Uzumaki have built up minor resistance to their genjutsu, but it's really only enough to not be enchanted when it's not aimed at us."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "They eat humans?"

Kaiyo chuckled. "Most of Uzushio's summons will eat humans. Krakens included."

Naruto made a face. "Are humans that yummy?"

Kaiyo laughed. "I wouldn't know, krakens don't have tastebuds. We can't taste anything."

Naruto looked scandalized. "You can't taste anything? You poor creatures!"

Mito chuckled. "Guppy, chickens don't have taste buds either. Quite a few animals don't have taste buds."

"I'll just have to ask someone else if humans are yummy," Naruto decided.

"Or you could ask Kaiyo to ask the sirens or the sea serpents if humans taste yummy," Mito pointed out reasonably.

Naruto thought about that. "I guess you're right, Kaiyo, could you please ask one of the other species if humans really taste that yummy?"

Kaiyo laughed slightly but nodded. "Alright, hatchling, I'll ask them next time I see them."

"What about the other branches?" Naruto asked, going back up the proverbial rabbit hole they'd fallen into.

"Well, the Akai Arashi branch summoned kelpies and pegasi. Pegasi are horses with wings, and kelpies are white horses with manes of seaweed that live in lakes and eat people," Mito explained.

"What's it with your summons and eating people?" Naruto wondered rhetorically.

Mito shrugged. "We just like man-eating summons. The snakes eat people too."

Naruto puffed out his cheeks and screwed up his face. "I don't think humans would taste very yummy."

"We're not going back down the same rabbit hole we just got out of," Kaiyo deadpanned.

Mito chuckled. "Right, the Iyashino Shio branch summons mers. They're people that are part fish. They're really good at healing and water jutsu."

"Oooo," Naruto said obligingly.

"The Difenda no Shio branch summoned sea serpents, they're giant snakes that live in the sea. With fins. They've got fins too."

Naruto nodded. "Do they eat people too?"

Mito snickered and nodded. "Yes, they do. I think Mers are the only ones who don't. And if I remember correctly, they can, have, and will. The pegasi are plant eaters though, they don't like meat."

"Cool," Naruto decided.

**(A/N) Yes, the Uzumaki are just that cool. In SEW, the Uzumaki got the contracts from water spirits. I dunno where they got them everywhere else. Kushina had not signed the contract when she went to Konoha, and as such, couldn't summon Krakens. I have a poll up for what you want to do about Ministry of Magic, Meet your Downfall's update spot, so go check that out. **


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) Hello! TBNRkurama: Kraken. He will get the Kraken summoning contract from Mito. No, for this Minato doesn't have any kekkei genkai on his side, but there is a slight chance that he may get one from his Uzumaki side. We'll see. Well, Mito and Madara aren't the only Pyro's around here… You're so welcome for the extended chapter, I couldn't figure out how to split this in two. Hihana here doesn't know Choryu, just FYI.**

Finally, they could go to Uzushio. It had been a couple of months of hassling and getting settled in, but they were finally on their way. Kakashi Hatake, the Hatake ANBU with the dog mask was escorting them, even if Mito did not need escorting, thank you very much. She allowed it because the cub had been Naruto's father's student. Close enough to family that she would allow it.

"Guppy, if you keep running around like that, you're going to tire yourself out faster," Mito said, watching Naruto run back and forth looking at everything.

"Maa, this is his first time outside of the village, let him run around a little bit," Hatake drawled.

Mito sighed. "I guess he isn't really that heavy either, so it won't be much of a hassle to carry him. Not that his weight is an issue anyway." She actually wasn't carrying anything visibly, as everything was in storage seals. She also had Naruto's stuff with her, but he was carrying a backpack anyway. He'd insisted on carrying his own fuuinjutsu supplies, so he was carrying them in his frog backpack that Mito figured came from Jiraiya, the Toad Sage. Clearly krakens were cooler, but she supposed everyone had their opinions. Even if _some people_ *cough cough* Madara *cough* had more vehement ways of expressing their favorite animal.

"We're almost half way there," Mito said, checking the night sky as they set up camp.

"How can you tell?" Kakashi asked, glancing up at the sky too.

Mito pointed to a cluster of stars Kakashi somehow didn't recognize. "Uzushio's alarm seals begin here, warping the night sky slightly. Some stars become dimmer the closer to Uzushio you get, some brighter. Like the Milky Way, see? It's brighter and has more color than you'll ever see in Konoha."

Naruto paused in his wood stacking to gape at the sky. "It is! The horsy stars are brighter too! And the belt stars over there are dimmer, and the big measuring cup stars aren't in the right position, and the small measuring cup stars were turned upside down!"

Kakashi blinked at the sky. "What are you talking about, Naruto?"

Naruto pointed. "See? That's the small measuring cup! The big ones to the left and down, the horsy one is over there, I dunno why it has those lines sticking out of its back, but whatever."

"It's the constellation Pegasus," Mito said. "The measuring cup ones are called the Big and Little Dipper respectively. The belt one you spoke of is Orion's Belt, you can see the rest of him if you look hard."

Kakashi's confusion showed in the quarter of his face that was visible. "I don't see it."

Mito chuckled. "Uzumaki have the stars mapped out in a bunch of constellations, or star clusters. Our minds often fill in the blanks, drawing pictures in the sky."

"Is there a myth behind it?" Naruto asked, abandoning his wood stacking to hop into Mito's lap.

Mito chuckled. "There is indeed, which you can hear after we've set up camp, and after dinner."

"And baths," Naruto said. "You said baths whenever there was a bunch of water nearby! There's a river over there!"

Mito blinked where he pointed. "Huh, it must have expanded. When I was here last, it was just a tiny stream, barely more than a trickle. And after baths, then."

Naurto eagerly scrambled off her lap, going back to stacking the wood, his little tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

Mito chuckled, and accepted the rabbit her clone handed her, beginning to skin and clean the animal. Kakashi finished setting up the fire, and lit it, moving on to setting up the tents.

Later, once the fire was dying down to warm embers, Mito let Naruto climb into her lap, and started drying off his hair.

"Myth now?" Naruto asked, pleading with big eyes.

Mito chuckled, and nodded. "Alright. So, a long time ago, way before even my old time, the Hogo Uzu branch was experimenting with space/time seals."

"So, nothing new," Kakashi interrupted.

Mito shushed him. "Perhaps, but they were also working with a third thing, dimensions. The seal malfunctioned slightly, sending a single Hogo Uzu member, a kunoichi named Teishiki, through the seal. They continued experimenting with it, hoping to get her back, when she appeared in the room, only six months later."

"How'd she get back?" Naruto asked, awed.

Mito held up a hand with three fingers. "Three people appeared in that room that day. Teishiki, and two others. One of them, probably how they'd gotten into the room, disappeared soon afterwards, and the other, had become Teishiki's husband."

"Did they have chkra?" Naruto asked.

"Chakra, and I'm getting there. The second one, the one who left, looked a bit like us, dark brown hair and eyes, but had two things off. One, their skin was covered in pretty patterns. Geometric patterns, squares, triangles, hexagons, everything."

Naruto ooo'd, absently drawing those shapes in the dirt with his finger. Kakashi was still pretending he wasn't listening to the story.

"The other was their ears. They were furred, like a cat's, or a dog's. Although far more like a cat."

Kakashi looked almost startled, and a bit confused. Naruto was just excited with a touch of sleepiness. It was getting to his bedtime.

"The second person, Teishiki's husband, had wings."

Kakashi visibly stared at her in disbelief. Naruto looked beyond amazed. "He did? Like a bird's? Wow!"

Mito nodded. "Yep, like a bird's. He had blue feathers, and his hair was blue too, like the sky kind of blue. He introduced himself as, well, Sky. It was in another language, one Teishiki seemed to have learned, and she translated his name as Sora. He understood our language, and could speak it, to a degree."

Kakashi looked plain incredulous now, and Mito suppressed a giggle at his expression.

"So he introduced constellations to you?" Naruto asked, eyes wide.

"Yep!" Mito said, smiling.

"There sure are a lot of Hogo Uzu branch people in the stories," Naruto murmured, curling up a bit more, his eyes closing.

Mito chuckled. "You'll find that they got up to a lot of things. They're probably the reason for most of the odd genetics that occasionally pop up in Uzumaki."

Naruto just yawned in response, head resting on Mito's shoulder as he fell asleep.

It took several weeks total to reach Uzushio, as they were traveling only a little faster than civilian pace.

"Isn't Uzushio supposed to be right here?" Kakashi drawled, raising an eyebrow at the empty ocean.

Mito frowned. "Yes, I'll check for a submersion, that was a thing that occasionally was done to hide Uzushio in the case of an invasion." She reared back slightly, channeled chakra to her fist, and punched the water, shockwaves traveling out from where her fist met the water, water blowing away from where she'd punched, rising up into huge waves that traveled outwards.

"Woah," Naruto muttered, gaping, even with his slightly green face. He hadn't been out on the open ocean before, neither had he waterwalked. Mito wasn't that surprised about the mild seasickness.

Kakashi watched the water flood back in. "Would it have been that deep?"

"Yes. Unless…" Mito frowned slightly, then her face cleared and she snapped her fingers. "It's an old Uzushio legend that Uzushio itself was originally two pieces, a dragon, and an underwater island that rose to the surface only sometimes. The Uzumaki that founded Uzushio used his sealing prowess to chain the island and the dragon together, keeping the dragon immobile, and the island on the surface."

"So, without Uzumaki to keep the seals up, the dragon flew away and the island sunk into the ocean?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mito nodded. She was beginning to think Kakashi was maybe a bit disbelieving of all the things Uzumaki got up to. They had a lot of myths for a reason. Almost all of which were true, no matter what Kakashi thought. "Probably. Submersion went too far, I suppose. There's a chance that some Uzumaki survived and got to the water breathing seals in time, so I'm going to summon Korarumaru and see what he thinks." She bit her thumb, placing her hand down on the newly stilled surface of the water and summoning the boss kraken.

"Mito-chan, it's been a while."

Mito inclined her head. "Korarumaru, it has. A seal malfunctioned and I was pulled to the future. Do you know what has happened to Uzushio?"

Korarumaru glanced around. "It appears it was set free."

"So the old legends are true?" Naruto asked suddenly. "Half of it flew away?"

Korarumaru chuckled. "Yes, hatchling. Half of it flew away. The other half lies at the bottom of the ocean. Forever linked, but the chain is dormant for now.

Mito surveyed the open ocean. "Can we reunite its halves?"

Korarumaru shrugged. Or did the equivalent for krakens. "You can try. You'll have to bring Shio up from its watery resting place by activating the chain. That will, in turn, bring the dragon back from its eternal flight."

Mito's eyes glittered with the thought of a challenge. "Alright, Korarumaru. Thank you."

"No problem, Mito-chan. Reunite Uzu and Shio for me." He disappeared in a large puff of smoke.

"So the two halves are named whirlpool and tide respectively," Kakashi mused. "Together it makes whirling tides."

"How can we go get a big island that's all the way down there?" Naruto asked suddenly. "It's all the way down there!"

Mito chuckled. "Come guppy, time to learn a very important lesson, fuuinjutsu can do anything."

They hurried back to land and set up camp. Mito sat Naruto down and started showing him how to design a seal. Specifically, a seal to let them breathe underwater for a while.

It took a day or two, but they worked it out. Kakashi applied the seal to the inside of his mask, and Mito and Naruto applied theirs to their tongues. Well, Mito applied them to their tongues with a touch. Naruto couldn't apply seals at a touch yet. Maybe in a few years.

They walked out to where Shio had been, well, Mito and Kakashi walked, Naruto decided he wanted to swim.

Breathing underwater was… interesting, and Mito wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to the feeling of water in her lungs, but not drowning. The seal worked by changing the composition of the water just enough for them to breath it in. Naruto took to it like an Uzumaki to sealing and was quickly swimming around them like he'd been born in the water. Kakashi was a bit more ungainly but soon worked it out. Mito had been swimming since she was a child, so she was fine. Kakashi was clearly disgruntled at being completely left in the dust by a five-year-old but was unable to comment due to the fact that you can't really speak when you're breathing water.

They swam down, and soon it was dark enough that Mito had to apply a light seal to her hand, and use it like a flashlight.

Out of the darkness a figure came into view, watching them curiously. It came closer, and into the beam of Mito's light seal. It was a human, or looked like one, anyway, with long red hair in a braid and bright blue eyes. She began signing something, and Kakashi looked taken aback. Mito recognized the signs as Uzushio Shinobi Sign Language. Kakashi had apparently learned the signs in addition to Konoha SSL.

'You came from the surface. Why are you here?'

'We are here to revive Uzushio.' Mito replied. 'I am Senju Mito, but my maiden name is Uzumaki.'

'You died a long time ago,' the other Uzumaki signed, raising an eyebrow.

'Seal incident. I am here now, and wish to see Uzushio revived."

'And they are?' She asked.

'I am Hatake Kakashi,' Kakashi offered in Uzushio SSL. 'A Konoha shinobi. Helping to fix our greatest mistake.'

She narrowed her eyes, circling him. 'Konoha didn't have the Uzushio symbol on their jackets before.'

'We placed it there after your destruction, a reminder that we were too slow to help our allies.'

'And the guppy?'

'Uzumaki Naruto, he is the current container for the Kyuubi.'

'Kushina's child? Where's Kushina?'

'Dead, she died the day Naruto was born.'

'Childbirth?'

'Kyuubi extraction, in addition to childbirth, and a stab through the gut with one of the Kyuubi's claws did her in,' Mito signed gravely.

She inclined her head. 'My name is Hihana Akai Arashi Uzumaki. I welcome you to Shio.'

Naruto glanced between them, utter confusion on his face. Mito patted his head reassuringly.

'We have places with air so we can talk without signing,' Hihana told them. 'We will talk at the Kage tower.'

Mito nudged Naruto forward, and he grabbed onto her shirt sleeve so he wouldn't get lost, as he didn't know where they were going.

Shio itself was lit up everywhere with lighting seals. Uzumaki swam along the streets, children mostly hanging onto adult's sleeves, probably for convenience.

'We have gone up to the surface a few times, mostly into nearby villages to increase the gene pool down here.' Hihana signed, waving to a couple of people they passed. 'We'll be fine for a while yet without being inbred like the Uchiha or Hyuuga. Or completely absorbing the remains of the Uzuki clan.'

Mito chuckled silently. 'I'm sure. So they're still choosing to remain a separate clan?'

'Yes, but perhaps it's good.'

Hihana led them straight to a large building in about the middle of the city. They entered through the door, right into air, so Hihana had them breath out as much as they could, then enter, so it was a less painful transition from water to air.

"Alright, this is the Uzushiokage tower. You'll have to talk to the Uzushiokage before you can actually raise Shio from the ocean, and chain Uzu," Hihana grinned, gesturing them down a hallway.

Naruto blinked at her. "What were you doing before?"

"We were using hand signs to communicate," Mito explained quietly. "All of the villages have their own dialect of Shinobi Sign Language, usually abbreviated to SSL."

Naruto nodded. "I wanna learn!"

"Perhaps later, guppy," Hihana said. "Right now, you have an appointment with the Uzushiokage."

She led them to the Uzushiokage's office. "Right, go on in, I have guard patrol to finish. Perhaps I'll see you around." Hihana waved and walked off down the hallway.

Mito pushed the door open, and the Uzushiokage looked up from his paperwork. "Mito?"

"Mofu?" She replied, stunned. "You're still alive?"

Kakashi was confused, as was Naruto. "You know him?"

"He's my little cousin. Or, was, I guess. You were just a guppy last time I saw you!"

"Well, it seems you have a guppy of your own in tow. Also, I am going to assume sealing mishap for how you're here now?"

Mito blushed faintly and nodded. "And, this isn't my guppy, he's Kushina's. Kushina's dead, and this guppy is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."

"And you aren't?" Mofu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Part of the mishap, so no, I'm not. That's Hatake Kakashi, he was Naruto's father's old student," Mito added. "We're here to revive Uzushio."

**(A/N) *cackling* Oh, and I wanted to tell you, Mofu means blanket. I named the Uzushiokage 'blanket'. *snickers* So, no, Semari is not the Uzushiokage this time, but she is alive. She would be Uzushiokage if not for one minor detail… so, yes, Uzumaki did get up to a lot, including knocking up other species! The two species in the myth that Mito told Naruto and Kakashi in the beginning are the Zoxaens, the species with the ears and markings, they will come into play later. Yes, some of them can teleport, which is what happened. Not all can though. Basically, the Zoxaen teleported, and Teishiki(it means coloring, amusing, right? Well, you'll get it later…) she set the destination, which was back to her universe. The second species, with the wings, are Fleetwings. Isn't their actual species name, but it's the most widely used variation. Sky's name is referencing his wing/hair/eye color, because it is sky blue. Fleetwings are very color oriented, hence their color names, and Teishiki's name being amusing. Ignore me, I'm insane, clearly. Either way, Fleetwings will show up more, I'll give more information as is needed, Zoxaens aren't likely to show up more, but might. **

**So, uh, I remembered that Karin was a sensor, and often, Uzumaki are sensors. Should I make a smaller branch for sensors? Or a department? Or something for sensors? Maybe a second small clan? **

**You'd so better be grateful for this super long chapter… Don't get used to it, this probably won't happen again.**

**I have a poll up for what you want updated, so go check that out. **


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) Makura means Pillow. Isn't that cute! Married couple and their names are pillow and blanket respectively! I think it's cute, anyway. Maybe I'm just psychotic. Guest: Tsunade will come back at some point, earlier then in canon, all I'll say. Uchiha clan, I do have a tendency to kill them, don't I. We'll have to rectify that. *smirks***

"_We're here to revive Uzushio."_

Mofu sighed. "We've been avoiding that."

"The world above doesn't even know that Uzu and Shio separated," Mito said. "And Konoha's all but forgotten you. Reuniting Uzu and Shio will do the world good."

Mofu sighed again. "You'll have to talk to Uzu. We can send you with the next haul of fish in a day's time. I know as well as anyone that no one can stop you when you set your mind on something."

Mito inclined her head. "Thank you."

"It was good to see you again Mito."

"Likewise," Mito said, turning and herding Naruto and Kakashi out of the door.

"There's an inn down the street, unused, but maintained. You can stay there."

"Thank you," Mito said, smiling and ushering Naruto and Kakashi out of the door.

A day later, Kakashi, Naruto, and Mito were standing with the buckets of fish. Kakashi had a hand over his mask like he found the scent of fish to be offensive or something, which it wasn't, just overpowering, Naruto was practically vibrating, scratch that, he was literally vibrating with excitement, and Mito was standing serenely.

"Have a nice trip," Mofu said, activating the seal.

They appeared on a platform, staring at a clearly mildly confused person. She had blood red hair and light purple wings.

"Hello," Mito said, mild amusement showing on her face.

"Hi," she said hesitantly. "You aren't fish."

Mito snorted. "Gosh, you don't say."

"You have wings!" Naruto shouted. "Like in nee-chan's story!"

"Uhh, yes, I do." The girl stammered.

"Can you take us to the leader?" Mito asked gently.

"I am not a high enough rank for this," she muttered, disappearing out of a door in the building they were in.

A person with a similar description to the person who'd dropped Teishiki and Sora off, except with more flowery patterns, poked their head in. "Ah, hello. Name?"

"Mito Uzumaki," Mito said, deciding to just go with her maiden name for now. "My companions are Naruto Uzumaki and Kakashi Hatake."

"Ah, we'd better take you to see Semari…" the Zoxaen trailed off, frowning slightly. "And that might be a problem. Dang it. Alright, just, uh, come with me, and we'll figure something out."

Mito took it in stride, and picked Naruto up, settling him on her hip, and following the Zoxaen out. Kakashi followed hesitantly behind.

Uzu was beautiful in its own way. As opposed to Shio, which was dark, save for the seals, Uzu was brightly lit by the sun over head. Mito was in awe of the buildings, which appeared to float, almost hovering on the cliffs that had made up much of this side of the island. It was clear the houses were built into the sides of the cliffs, with seals reinforcing them.

"So, uh, Semari's home and office is kinda at the top of that cliff there. And I'm assuming you don't want to wall walk all the way up there, hence the problem. Oh, my name's Fantomu, nice to meet you."

Mito nodded to her. "Likewise."

Kakashi seemed a bit preoccupied with staring at the cliff and the houses built into it, along with the brightly colored winged people flying around, stopping on ledges, hovering in mid air to exchange things, a class was over there, learning how to fly, and then there were the people who didn't have wings, but were flying anyway, interspersed among them.

"Alright, so uh, give me a moment and I'll find an air elementalist. Or a teleporter. Rabenda, can you sort of keep an eye on them in the meantime?"

"I'll do it," a male Fleetwing said, landing in front of them. Mito knew he wasn't fully Fleetwing, the very slight red markings on his cheeks meant he was probably a Fleetwing Zoxaen hybrid. "You lot down at the fish area are all way too timid for your own good anyway. Hi, my name's Sora."

"Like the man in the myth!" Naruto explained, apparently recovering from seeing so many people with wings. "And you're blue too!"

Mito chuckled, patting Naruto on the head. "Careful, guppy, it's kind of rude to say things like that."

"Sorry nee-chan," Naruto apologized.

"Nah, it's fine. But yes, like the man in your Uzumaki myths," Sora said, smiling.

Naruto started squirming, so Mito placed him on the ground. He ran over and started poking at Sora's wings. "they're so soft!" He exclaimed after a moment.

Mito sighed. "My apologies."

"It's fine," Sora said, shrugging. He twisted and moved Naruto in front of him, then carefully spread his wings.

Mito was quietly impressed. Sora wasn't a particularly tall man, she herself was five and a half feet, and she looked him in the eye, but his wingspan was massive. Perhaps 16 feet, give or take a foot or two.

"Woah!" Naruto said loudly, running back up to Sora's wings. "They're so big!"

Sora chuckled. "I do have rather large wings for my size, you are right. Shall we begin moving towards the cliff? We may be able to find a teleporter or air elementalist on the way."

Mito inclined her head. "Why not? We can get a better look at the city."

Sora nodded, smiling. He folded his wings, and turned to walk away. "Fantomu should be able to find us anyway, she's pretty good at that."

Mito had to pull on Kakashi's arm to get him moving, but once moving, he followed without complaint.

Naruto bounced around Sora. "This is so cool! What's teleportation? What's an air elementalist?"

Mito chuckled, stopping the flow of words. "Your father used teleportation. It means going from one place to another instantly."

"Oooooh," Naruto said, nodding. "I see! And an air elementalist?"

Sora took that one, as Mito wasn't quite sure herself. "They control the air without using jutsu."

"Cool!" Naruto decided loudly.

"Emma, I didn't know you were here," Sora said, waving to a slim girl with mahogany hair.

She turned, and grinned, waving. "Sora! Hello! I'm here with my brother getting some spices and stuff for Onyx. Ah, hello, we haven't had new people in ages!"

"Mito, Kakashi, Naruto, this is Emma," Sora introduced.

Emma smiled, inclining her head respectfully. "Nice to meet you."

"You as well," Mito replied calmly.

"What can you do?" Naruto asked, bouncing up to her.

She crouched down slightly, bringing her to eye level with Naruto. "I can control fire, fly, teleport, read minds, and create stuff."

"That's quite the list," Kakashi noted, apparently recovered.

Emma inclined her head, glancing up at him. "You're looking at one of the most powerful Royal Zoxaens. The other is my brother."

"How do you create things?" Mito asked curiously, narrowing her eyes slightly. Maybe she could make it into a seal… Sure you could create things with chakra, like the chains, but it was difficult, and took a lot of focus.

Emma held up her hand, a dark orange construct forming above her palm, shaping into a kunai. It fell down into her hand, and she handed it to Mito. "I kinda condense mental energy, I guess. Most of my abilities are mental based. Uh, I suppose your equivalent would be I'm only using Yin energy to make them."

"But that's very clearly physical," Kakashi said, taking the kunai and flipping it a few times. "And balanced."

Emma shrugged. "Bloodline thing. Like my control of fire and other abilities."

Mito took the kunai back from Kakashi, examining it. "Can I keep this?"

Emma nodded. "Lemme see it for a moment though, or it'll disappear the first time I fall asleep." Mito handed it over, and Emma placed both hands on it, concentrating for a moment before handing it back to Mito. "There you go, it's pretty much invincible, and doesn't dull, so maybe don't lose it. I, uh, haven't tried channeling chakra, but theoretically, it should do it fine."

Mito inclined her head, tucking it into her kunai pouch. "Noted."

"Right, so you need to go up to Semari, don't you," Emma said, glancing up at the house on top of the hill. "I can get you there, I am a teleporter."

Sora nodded. "Alright, just alert Fantomu so she doesn't have to continue looking."

Emma nodded, holding out an arm. "Take hold, I can't just extend a teleporting field. I'm not that kind of teleporter."

Kakashi tentatively placed a hand on her forearm, Naruto bounced over to hug her leg, and Mito took hold of her wrist. Emma patted Naruto on the head. "I'm assuming you can get up there on your own, Sora?"

He nodded. "Of course I can. I'm not injured."

Emma grinned, and suddenly they were looking out over the village from the top of the cliff. "Here we are!"

Kakashi blinked a few times, glancing between her and the village where Sora was still visible, leaping into flight.

"That was awesome!" Naruto shouted.

Emma blushed slightly. "Thank you!"

"Interesting," Mito said, tilting her head slightly. "How exactly do you teleport?"

Emma thought about it for a moment. "I'm the 'punch holes in the space/time/dimensions continuum and go through' type."

Mito nodded. "Cool."

"I do have to go, my brother is looking for me. Perhaps I'll be able to see you before you leave, but bye for now!" She reached down and gently disentangled Naruto from her leg and handed him to Mito. "Bye Naruto!"

He waved, and she disappeared.

"Just have to wait for Sora to get up here," Mito noted with amusement.

**(A/N) *smirks* Anyone recognize that cameo? So, Emma's comment about the Royal Zoxaen. There are two types of Zoxaen, the 'Royal' type, and the 'normal' type. Normals don't have any special powers, lack the furred ears, and have slightly pointed ears instead. They won't appear, cause they can't get between worlds. Not on their own anyway. Also they mostly just don't care. So, FMJ just finished, and I have like, three cool Tenten stories and an awesome Shikamaru one, so do you mind if I post one of those instead of updating a different story? **


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) Hello! Also, seriously Kakashi, why are you being so quiet! Why won't you talk! Stupid ANBU training...**

Sora didn't take long to arrive, for which Mito was grateful. Naruto was rather excitable, and had nowhere to put the energy, so he was jumping around like a rabbit on caffeine.

Sora chuckled when he landed. "Excited, are we?"

"Yeah yeah yeah!" Naruto chirped, hopping around.

Sora smiled, and knocked on the door to the house. "Semari?"

A red-headed woman poked her head out of the door. "Yes Sora? Come to pester me out of the house and on a walk again."

"While that would be nice," Sora replied, trying to push the door open further, "We have visitors."

Semari opened the door a bit further, spotting Mito and the bouncing Naruto. She smiled. "Ah, hello Mito, Mofu sent word you were coming. Where's the other person?"

"Door open a little bit further," Sora grunted, still trying to push open the door.

Semari sighed and opened it a bit. "Ah, there he is. Last time I saw you, you were barely shoulder high."

"May we come in?" Mito asked, placing a hand on Naruto's head to still him.

"Sure," Semari said, opening the door further, and disappearing inside, the barest flash of blood red feathers making Mito raise an eyebrow. Semari would have been too old to manifest traits, and Mito remembered Kushina mentioning her mother being a carrier, but not manifesting Fleetwing traits.

Sora entered first, Naruto bouncing in after him, and Kakashi following, slouching lazily. Mito entered last, closing the door behind her.

"So, when'd you stop being old and wrinkly?" Semari asked, sitting down at her desk, one leg propped up on a cushion. "And dead."

"About two months ago," Mito replied, settling on one of the couches in the room, Naruto immediately hopping up onto her lap. "Since then I have been settling in and getting Naruto up to a more appropriate level of skill and health for his age." The 'and dealing with the Hokage' went unsaid.

"I see," Semari said. "Konoha doing well then?"

"As well as it can be," Mito replied, gently shifting Naruto to a more comfortable position as he started falling asleep.

"Why did you wish to meet with me? Other than to inform me you're still alive. Not that it isn't nice to know that."

"I believe it's time for Uzushio to reunite," Mito said simply. "Mofu agreed, but Shio cannot rise without Uzu."

Semari sighed heavily. "I worry though. The rest of the world is not as forward as Uzushio. You've seen, we aren't quite human any longer."

"I think it's cool," Naruto murmured, burying his face deeper in Mito's shoulder.

Semari smiled. "You would be one of the few. Children are always more accepting than adults when they're younger."

"Why don't you try sending a few on joint Konoha missions?" Mito suggested. "See how people react to your shinobi? If things go badly, you can retreat back to the sky, and we'll figure out something to keep Shio up if they so wish."

Semari sighed, absently signing another piece of paperwork. "Alright. I can agree to that. But it will be teleporters or stealth types who are on the teams, and they will be chosen voluntarily only."

Mito inclined her head. "Of course. I wouldn't ask otherwise."

Semari looked to Sora. "Find the most recent consensus, I think it's next to the fiction book Choryu gave me."

Sora nodded, going into the next room.

"When will this begin?" Semari asked, looking to Mito.

"As soon as possible. We have another week before we have to head back. And I would like to use it."

"Reasonable," Semari replied, nodding. "I will attempt to find three volunteers who will return to Konoha with you. In the meantime, I suggest remaining in Shio, while we have accommodations, it is not easy for those unable to fly or teleport to get around here. I will, of course, send for you once those who will be going with you have been selected."

Mito nodded, careful not to disturb Naruto as she stood up. "We will leave you to it then."

Kakashi stood up after her, ever silent, and followed her out.

Emma was standing outside, conversing animatedly with a young man Mito could already tell was taller than both her and Kakashi. A fleetwing with black feathers was watching the two with amusement clear in her eyes.

Emma glanced over a second later, expertly disengaging from the conversation and teleporting over to coo at the sleeping Naruto.

Mito smiled. "Hello Emma."

Emma grinned, straightening best she could. "Hello!" She chirped quietly. "That's my brother Colyn, and our adopted sibling Onyx."

Onyx strolled over, adjusting the backpack she had on. "Emma practically dragged us up here a moment ago. I can see why."

"Pleased to meet you both," Mito said cordially. "My name is Mito Uzumaki. This is my guppy Naruto. Kakashi was ordered to guard us."

"Something tells me you don't actually need his protection," Colyn deadpanned, amusement clear on his face.

Mito smirked. "Shh, don't tell him that, he'll get sad."

Kakashi glared at both of them, and Emma snickered.

"If you're done teasing me," Kakshi said stiffly, "The sun is high in the sky, and I believe it's about lunch time."

"Of course, of course," Mito agreed. "Do you guys have somewhere to be, or would you join us for lunch?"

Onyx smiled, "I would love to, but I do have to get home and cook our lunch."

Emma placed her hand on Onyx's arm. "I can come back though. Colyn, you staying or not?"

"I'll stay," Colyn replied easily. "Tell Dad for me, okay?"

Onyx nodded, and disappeared with Emma.

"Emma'll be back in a moment," Colyn said. "She's probably checking to see if anyone was coming over for lunch and requires transportation."

"Do a lot of people come over often?" Mito asked curiously.

"You could say we have a large friend group," Colyn replied. "They have other way of getting to us, but Emma doesn't mind, and she's a bit faster."

"She's faster than most modes of transportation," Mito said, amused.

Colyn shrugged, grinning, as Emma reappeared next to him. "I'm back!" She said, grinning.

"So, know any good places to eat?" Mito asked, gently trying to wake Naruto up.

Emma shrugged. "We don't actually live here, but I suppose we could try that one place you saw while shopping."

"The curry?" Colyn asked. "It looked spicy. Emma, you're like, the only one in our family that likes spicy things."

Mito chuckled. "I'm sure they have non-spicy options too. Kakashi, what do you think?"

Kakashi shrugged. "If we get a corner, I don't care what we eat."

Mito rolled her eyes and leaned over to whisper to Emma and Colyn conspiratorially. "ANBU, always want the corner."

"It's easily defensible," Kakashi protested hotly. "It's reasonable!"

Colyn inclined his head towards Kakashi. "He's not wrong."

"We're literally in the sky." Emma deadpanned. "Who's going to attack us?"

"Evil seagulls," Mito told her solemnly, Naruto looking around sleepily. "They want to dive bomb us and poo in our food."

Emma snorted, and Colyn chuckled.

"You'll protect me from the evil seagulls, right Nee-chan?" Naruto asked sleepily.

"Of course Naruto," Mito assured him. "I'll make sure all your food is safe from the evil seagulls."

Emma devolved into snickering, while Colyn hid a smile behind a hand. Kakashi sighed longsufferingly.

"That one's totally going to be spicy," Colyn argued.

"Is not!" Emma said, gesturing to it. "It's practically the color of milk."

"Ghost peppers are called that for a reason Emma!" Colyn argued, jabbing a finger at the list of ingredients.

Naruto climbed up onto the table to see what they were arguing about. "It looks kinda spicy to me."

Colyn gestured to Naruto like he had solved the problem. Emma sighed. "Fine, it's probably mildly spicy."

Mito chuckled. "Trust me, those peppers are anything but. You'd have to have a very impressive spice tolerance to eat them, especially in a curry."

"Well, I happen to have a very impressive spice tolerance," Emma told her. "I might as well try it."

"Not kidding," Colyn groaned. "She once ate a ghost pepper accidentally, and barely noticed."

Emma shrugged. "It was Spyte's fault, she's the one that handed it to me!"

Colyn just sighed deeply.

Mito laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine then. Here, Naruto, why don't you try this one, it's far milder than what Emma's trying to kill herself with."

"I am not trying to kill myself with the heat!" Emma protested. "I just want to try it!"

"If you end up wanting to burn your own tongue off, I'm laughing at you with no remorse," Colyn told her.

Mito snorted, handing her menu to the server, who looked amused. She told him her order, then the others did theirs.

**(A/N) Fear the seagulls. Fear them. Also, Emma's eating the equivalent of ghost pepper curry for us normal humans who don't have fire powers and thus the ability to have a serious spice tolerance. Go see the poll I have up about the new story in FMJ's update spot. Don't worry, the other three not chosen will have their turn to be selected when either SDC, or HCR and TTDS end. BYE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N) Hi! Guest: And you may speak for yourself. I'm happy not having a ghost pepper. **

"Erm, hello," a clearly Zoxaen teen said, ears flicking back temporarily.

Mito smiled at her. "Hello. Did you come to fetch us?"

She nodded. "My name's Hamako, I'll be going with you. And I'm here to collect you."

"A teleporter?" Mito guessed. "I'll go find Naruto. I think he's playing in the marketplace with a couple of the other kids."

"It's good he made friends so quickly," Hamako said. "I should probably come with you, I do not have any need for groceries."

Mito giggled softly. "Right. I believe Kakashi is watching him, so we'll find both at once."

Hamako nodded, and followed Mito out of the air filled store, and to where Naruto had apparently started a game of tag, the four other guppies he was playing with twisting through the water in an attempt to avoid Naruto's somewhat clumsy swipes.

Mito stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled, even underwater, the sound getting the attention of all the Shio guppies and Kakashi. She nodded to Hamako, and patted her leg. Naruto got it, and swam over, waving to his friends, and using the tiny amount of sign language he knew to say goodbye. Kakashi came over as well, looking interested.

'This the one sent to collect us?' He asked, signing quickly.

Mito nodded. She patted Naruto's head, offered her hand, which he took, and looked at Hamako.

'I'm a field teleporter, so we'll be fine. One moment.' Hamako focused for a moment, then they appeared in Uzu, in front of Semari.

Mito coughed up some water, then nodded to Semari while her companions also hacked up water. "Semari."

"Mito. Meet those that offered to go with you." She gestured to behind them, and Mito turned, meeting the eyes of the four people there, all with blood red hair. One she knew, the other three she didn't. Two female, two male.

"I'm Fantomu, but we met already," the one Mito knew said sheepishly. "I'm a stealth type with invisibility, flight, and phasing. And I'm from the Hogo Uzu branch."

"Like me!" Naruto chirped, grinning, then coughing a few more times. Mito patted his back to help get the water out.

Fantomu nodded, smiling a bit.

"I'm Kawako, a stealth and melee type with light manipulation, phasing, and telekinetic creations."

Naruto tugged on Mito's pant leg. "What's phasing? And invisibility? And manipulation?"

Kawako smiled, crouching down. "Light manipulation means I can bend light. From the sun, from seals, wherever!"

Naruto gaped a little. "That's so cool! Can you touch it?"

Kawako giggled. "It's too hot to touch directly, but I can bend it. If I tried touching light directly, it'd burn me badly."

Naruto got it, nodding quickly.

Mito chuckled. "Invisibility means you can't see them, guppy. That's probably why they're called stealth types."

"Oooh! Cause they can be super sneaky!" Naruto said, vibrating excitedly.

One of the males snorted. "Yes tiny fledgeling, cause we are super sneaky. Bachi, by the way. Sensor stealth type. Difenda no Shio branch."

"But what about phasing?" Naruto asked, blinking adorably.

Kawako held up one hand, and it became slightly transparent. She offered it to Naruto, who tried to take it, only for his hand to pass right through hers.

"Woah!" Naruto said, grinning as he swiped his hand through hers a few more times. Her hand solidified, and she caught his wrist.

The other male shook his head. "I am Katsu. A teleporter with wind manipulation and phasing. I'm from the Akai Arashi Branch."

Mito inclined her head respectfully to each, and they responded in kind.

"I believe you were to leave today?" Semari asked, drawing the attention back to her.

Mito nodded. "Yes. Any time would be fine, we must get back to Konoha." She ruffled Naruto's hair, spraying water everywhere with the motion.

"I won't hold you up then. You can leave now if you wish. Hamako is able to teleport you to the ground."

Hamako grinned and waved when Mito glanced at her.

"Alright. Kakashi, you have everything, right?"

Kakashi nodded, adjusting his backpack.

Mito smiled at Hamako. "We can go. I will send a head a notice to the Hokage once we are there, if you don't mind."

"I can feed the fishes!" Naruto cheered.

"I'll find the tuna," Mito said, smiling reassuringly.

"I can't give them tuna! Do you know what tuna is?" Naruto asked, very serious.

Mito pulled up the face she used when Hashirama was being ridiculous, and it was best to play along. "Fish?"

"IT'S FISH!" Naruto exclaimed. "If I gave them tuna, I'd be an abomination! That's cannibalism!"

Mito expertly hid her smile behind the face. "Oh, of course. I'll find the peanut butter then."

The other adults hid their smiles behind their hands, hands twitching like they wanted to ruffle Naruto's hair.

"All Uzushio guppies go through this phase," Semari told Mito, very clearly biting her lip to avoid smiling. "The 'giving fish tuna is cannibalism' phase. Then we teach them that fish eat other fish anyway."

Mito nodded, pursing her lips to hide her smile. "Of course. I'll have to get on that at some point."

"Or don't," Semari suggested innocently. "I'm sure all of the cute little Konoha children would looove to know about how feeding tuna to fish is cannibalism, and how his friends told him all about it."

"Their parents would certainly be delighted…" Mito agreed, chuckling softly.

"Wouldn't know any better anyway," Semari said, grinning.

Naruto tugged impatiently on her pant leg. "I wanna feed the fish!"

Mito chuckled. "Alright, alright. Perhaps I shall see you again, Semari."

Semari nodded, and Hamako glanced around. "Everyone ready to go?"

The others nodded. She concentrated for a moment, then they were standing outside, next to the beach Mito, Kakashi, and Naruto had originally arrived at.

Mito created a shadow clone, handing over her own fuuinjutsu supplies for it to create a communication seal with. She made a pair of peanut butter sandwiches, handed one to Naruto, and followed him into the water.

Luckily, these were very temperate waters, and as such, beautiful coral reefs lay just off shore.

Naruto pointed excitedly at the very colorful fish. Mito smiled and nodded along. He started tearing off little pieces and offering them to the tiny fish that cautiously approached him. Mito chuckled soundlessly, bubbles floating from her mouth as more and more tiny fish clustered around him, some becoming brave enough to come and nibble at the sandwich Mito held in her grasp. Mito let them, she wasn't going to eat it anyway.

Naruto squeaked loud enough for Mito to hear him through the water, and Mito glanced up to find him staring at his empty hand, then glance at a very pleased barracuda, swimming away with the remains of the sandwich held tightly in its jaws.

Mito chucked, and handed her sandwich to Naruto, who grinned, and started handing out more pieces of sandwich.

A moment later, and Mito's clone popped, alerting her that the message had gone through to Hiruzen. She tapped Naruto's shoulder, gesturing back towards shore. He glanced at her, glanced back to find another barracuda trying to steal the rest of the sandwich, somehow managed to punch it, then tore the rest of the sandwich quickly for the smaller fish.

Mito ruffled his hair, and started swimming back towards the shore. Naruto followed, kicking the barracuda once more for good measure when it tried going after the sandwiches again.

"Have a good time?" Kawako asked, grinning at them as they exited the water.

Mito nodded, ruffling Naruto's hair again. "Saw a couple barracudas, one stole the sandwich, and Naruto defeated the other in epic battle."

Kawako darted over to ruffle his hair too. "Wow! You did! How'd'cha do that!? Barracuda's are terrifying opponents you know."

"They aren't that big," Kakashi muttered.

Katsu snorted. "You try fighting off fifty of them. We've heard the stories."

"And it's not even just the barracudas, it's the sharks that follow them," Bachi added. "At this point, barracuda stories are to the Uzumaki, as the fish stories are to the fishermen."

"Or the 'the blood in my victim went this far' stories of the Kaguya," Hamako added, wrinkling her nose.

Mito shook her head. "Or the 'my fireball was this big' to the Uchiha!"

Confused glances were exchanged.

"Oh, do they not do that anymore?" Mito asked confused. "I figured they'd be somewhat immortalized after Madara proved he could, in fact, do a 200 foot fireball."

"That's a lotta feet, right?" Naruto asked.

Mito nodded. "A lotta feet is a bit of an understatement, guppy."

**(A/N) Haha, the fish stories. Y'know the 'I saw a fish thiiiiiis big' *cue dramatic gesturing* And of course, the ninja equivalents. But yeah, no one's heard of the Uchiha fireball stories. It's like you forgot when FMJ updates or something, and completely missed the debut of A Nara's Shadow Through Time and Space. How sad. Go see it! Also, it's Tenten's birthday today! I'll be posting a thingie for it in a little while, keep an eye out for it!**


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N) Bob: Mhmm, Sorry 'bout the names, they're from another universe, what did you want me to do? Oh, did anyone catch the Lilo and Stitch reference I made last chapter? Also, apologies Mito forgot to mention, but Bachi is part Fleetwing. **

"And then, I somersaulted, and he flipped, and we crashed!" Naruto finished, grinning widely.

"You crashed into each other?" Kawako asked, clearly amused.

Naruto nodded. "Mhmm! We butted heads, and it hurt, but we were okay!"

"You came home with quite the bruise though," Mito noted, tapping his forehead. "Cleared up in a day or so though."

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. "Hehe, yeah."

Mito chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Would those be Konoha's gates?" Katsu asked, raising an eyebrow at the gates just barely coming into view. "They look...unguarded."

"They aren't, I assure you," Mito said, smiling.

Bachi raised his eyebrow. "Really? They feel unguarded."

"If they're unguarded, I will personally strangle the ANBU supposed to be there," Kakashi deadpanned. "And they will be on bathroom duty for a month."

Hamako snorted, covering her mouth with one hand for a moment.

Bachi's feathers ruffled in amusement, and Naruto giggled, delighted at the movement of the feathers. Mito ruffled his hair.

"State your intention," Izumo said, popping up from his station.

Mito stepped forward. "Mito Uzumaki, returning from my trip. Accompanied by Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki."

Izumo flipped through his book, finding them, and nodding. "Uh, who're your friends?"

"They're here, and need to see the Hokage. It's urgent business."

While Izumo was at least attempting to see professional and not at all staring at the four weird people waiting to enter Konoha, Kotetsu was doing no such thing, and blatantly staring at them.

Mito snapped her fingers in front of his face, and he jumped. "It's rude to stare," she chastised him.

Kotetsu immediately ducked his head. "Sorry!"

Hamako snickered, tapping the jagged spikes of red marking her cheeks and arms. "These are pretty stunning!"

Kawako rolled her eyes. "He's probably staring at Bachi. Fleetwings are quite the sight in this place. The villagers in the last four villages wouldn't stop staring at him either."

"Or he just thinks you two are cute," Katsu said casually, clearly enjoying the bright red blush very nearly obscuring both of the girl's marks.

Mito bit down a grin. Kawako quickly smacked Katsu on the head, turning away. "It couldn't be that!"

Izumo rolled his eyes. "May very well be that," he smacked Kotetsu on the head with the notepad, before handing it to Mito. "Excuse the idiot germs on it."

Mito inclined her head, taking the notepad. "I'll do my best to ignore them."

Naruto tugged on her pants. "That's friendly teasing, right?"

Mito nodded at him, completely ignoring the friendly catfight going on behind them. "Yes it is. Good job."

"Just fill in the right areas, and you're good to go see the Hokage with your… guests."

Mito smiled politely. "If you'll excuse me a moment. Naruto, hold this for a moment please." She handed him the notepad and the pencil she'd pulled out of a storage seal, and headed over to the mild catfight.

"Stop that!" Kawako said, cuffing Katsu over the head again.

"I'm just saying!" He replied, whacking her hand away.

Mito cuffed both of them over the head. "That's enough out of both of you. You are shinobi, and you will act like it. Yes, Kawako, Kotetsu would most likely enjoy a date, but he is an idiot, so I wouldn't advise it. Katsu, stop riling her up, we are literally at the gates of Konoha, did you want your first impression on Konoha to be that of an idiot they probably wouldn't trust to send on a mission?"

Kawako flushed red, glaring slightly at Kotetsu.

Katsu deflated. "No, I'll shut up now."

Mito nodded. "Good. Now, I don't want to see any more arguments."

They both nodded sheepishly, and Mito went back to Naruto, claiming the notepad, and beginning the process of getting what information Konoha needed on her companions.

Place of origin, oh, this was going to shock them good. Uzushiogakure.

She finished up and handed the notepad over. "If you'll excuse us, we must see the Hokage about an urgent matter.

Izumo nodded distractedly, apparently kicking Kotetsu under the table if his sudden jump for the gate meant anything. He opened it, and Mito led her companions inside.

Hiruzen was exactly as shocked as anyone would expect him to be, given she highly doubted anyone bothered to tell him about some of the old Uzushio myths containing extra dimensional people.

Naruto kicked the door in, as was expected of the hyperactive guppy that hadn't seen his grandfather figure in a few weeks. "JIJI!" He declared, hopping over to Hiruzen, only to be stopped by Mito's firm hand on his shirt.

"Manners, child," she chastised gently. Naruto grinned sheepishly, and she released him.

"Naruto, when did you get back?" Hiruzen asked, smiling at the guppy as he walked over, slower with Mito's gentle reminder.

"We just got back," Mito said, stepping aside to allow the others in. "If you don't mind, Sarutobi, we have a few things to discuss."

Kakashi stepped in to show he was back, then abruptly shunshined out of the window, clearly not wanting to be there any longer then he had to.

Bachi stepped in next, and while Hiruzen's attention was on him, the other three stepped in as well.

"Uzushio is alive and well. These four are here to act as scouts, to see how the world would react to them. Uzu is worried, and has every right to be."

Hiruzen blinked in surprise, even as Naruto wormed his way onto the man's lap to look at his paperwork.

"If you do not mind-" Mito paused, spotting Naruto picking up a pen. "Naruto, don't do his paperwork for him please. Just because you can copy his signature exactly, doesn't mean you should."

Hiruzen gaped for a moment, looking down at Naruto, who sheepishly dropped the pen. "Sorry Jiji! It just looked so interesting, and there was so much of it, and you were gonna be busy with Kaa-san." He jolted to a stop there, glancing at Mito.

Mito froze when she heard him call her that. She wasn't against it, of course, if anything she'd been hoping he saw her as a motherly figure, but this was the first time he's actually said so. "N-Naruto."

"I-I'm sorry!" Naruto squeaked, ducking down behind Hiruzen's desk.

Mito ignored the quiet suppressed squeals from behind her, and moved to where she could see Naruto, huddled on Hiruzen's lap, trying to hide. "Naruto, I'm not mad, just the opposite."

Naruto uncurled just enough to peek at her. "You aren't?"

"Of course not." She chose to ignore the quiet 'that's so cute!' from behind her, and opened her arms, offering a hug.

Naruto took that as a good sign, and launched himself off of Hiruzen's lap and into her arms. She settled him on her hip, and resumed her position in front of the Hokage's desk. "As I was saying, if you don't mind allowing them to go on missions with our shinobi for a little while to get a sense of how the world will react to them."

Hiruzen seemed to reboot his brain, and nodded. He addressed the people behind her. "Your ranks?"

"Jounin. For all of us," Hamako spoke, stepping forward slightly. "Although, it is by Uzushio standards, which are notoriously much higher than most other village's."

"Translation, they're all at least low kage level," Mito said, smiling and adjusting Naruto's position on her hip. "Perhaps, D-ranks aren't the best option."

"I'll take not doing D-ranks like an academy student," Kawako offered. "Or, I guess, your genin do them?"

Mito nodded to Kawako. "Konoha genin do D-ranks mostly."

"I-I suppose I can arrange that. Come by to pick up a mission in four days. That should give you enough time to settle in," Hiruzen said, jotting down a note for later.

Mito inclined her head, and the Uzushio shinobi bowed shallowly. They left, Mito adjusting a now sleeping Naruto so she was holding him against her chest, his head on her shoulder. Much more comfortable for both of them.

"Kawaii!" Kawako said quietly, hovering around Naruto.

Mito placed her free hand on her mouth. "Shh, I would like to keep him asleep. Not that he's a very light sleeper."

"Uzumaki rarely are," Bachi noted, shrugging, his wings moving with the motion and drawing many stares. Not that there weren't any stares before.

"The Senju compound is down this way," Mito said, turning down a side street. "There is plenty of room in the main house, but you may select one of the other houses in the compound if you wish. Only the middle section is unsealed so I can keep Naruto a bit more contained, and so there is less for me to keep up."

"We can stay in the main house," Hamako said, smiling. "And can help keep the compound."

Mito smiled. "Thank you. Down here. The seals at the front will read you as Uzumaki and let you in, so do not worry about that. The compound is hidden with Kieru Shio level genjutsu seals, and is very safe."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from an Uzushio sealmaster," Bachi said, raising an eyebrow at what looked like a basic wall, nothing beyond it.

"Of course," Mito said, entering the compound, and sensing the others enter behind her. "Welcome to the Senju, or rather, now the Uzumaki compound in Konoha."

**(A/N) Cool place to stop! So, they are back in Konoha! That's good, right? You may already know, but Imma say it anyway. SDC just ended, and there is a poll up on my profile that is for what replaces it. There are many options, all wonderful ones, I assure you. And besides! I wrote it, how can it not be awesome! (I'm kidding, have you seen Through the Looking Glass? Or Uzumaki's Perfection? Dear stars, those are disasters.) Anyway, Happy birthday to Ibiki, and have a good night!**


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N) *whispers* I accidentally forgot about Fantomu, so I'm mentioning what she was doing. *puts finger to lips* don't tell anyone I forgot. **

Naruto woke up as they entered the compound, wriggling until Mito put him down. He ran over to find one of the ponds, poking the water a few times. Mito went over and crouched next to him.

"See Naruto, they're just fine," Mito said chuckling.

Naruto poked the water again, this time a few fish coming up to greet him and nibble at his finger in hope of food.

"Oh, those are really pretty decorative koi!" Kawako said, leaning over and inspecting the fish. "You picked pretty colors!"

"I picked them!" Naruto said, grinning and pointing at himself.

Mito chucked again. He had picked them indeed. Before she had died the first time around, she had made sure the koi had been given away to other clans, so they wouldn't die when she did and the compound was sealed. As such, there had been none in the designated pools when she reopened the compound. Not seeing koi every time she looked into a pool had been too weird, so she had taken Naruto to the store to find some koi.

Somewhat predictably, he had chosen mostly orange and gold koi, but Mito had managed to convince him to find some of the dark blue and red koi for a bit of variety.

"Oh, Naruto, look, the eggs hatched finally," Mito pointed to one of the very small koi swimming around. She had some experience in breeding koi, so she was teaching it to Naruto, who thought it was all quite interesting.

"Oooh!" Naruto cheered, almost falling in the pond to get a better look. Hamako grabbed the back of his shirt before he did though.

"Let's not fall into the pool," Hamako suggested.

Naruto laughed sheepishly. "Oops! Sorry!"

Mito chuckled and patted his head. "Just be more careful next time, alright Guppy?"

Naruto nodded rapidly. "Uhuh! I got it!"

"It's pretty difficult to get koi to breed in just a random pool," Bachi noted. "Well done."

Mito smiled as Naruto grinned, brighter than the sun. It wasn't actually all that hard, but Naruto didn't need to know that. The smile he gave was more real than any he'd given just three months ago, when she landed here.

"Why don't we go get them settled in?" Mito asked Naruto, standing up and brushing off her clothes.

Naruto bounced up too, grabbing Kawako's hand and dragging her off enthusiastically. Kawako giggled as she got dragged along, and Mito smiled indulgently. "Slow down, Naruto, we don't want to accidentally wrench her arm out of her socket.

Kawako laughed. "I assure you, I'm a bit more resilient and durable than the strength of a five year old."

"Six in two months!" Naruto chirped, slowing down only slightly.

"October?" Katsu asked Mito.

Mito nodded. "October 10th, to be precise."

Katsu winced slightly. "Ah, the sensor guild went into a melt down that day, whole guild was freaking out about the Kyuubi's signature."

Mito sighed, a hand moving automatically to her stomach. "I bet. I'm sure they were just happy the Kyuubi wasn't released closer to Uzushio."

"No kidding," Katsu agreed.

Mito moved ahead, opening the door for Kawako and Naruto. "There are plenty of empty bedrooms, so you wouldn't have to share a room unless you really wanted to."

"Where did Fantomu go?" Hamako asked suddenly. "Dear stars, sometimes I swear that girl disappears into thin air."

"That is one of her abilities," Bachi deadpanned.

"I-I'm right here," Fantomu offered, flickering into view. "S-sorry."

Kawako sighed, planting a hand on Fantomu's shoulder. "This, this is why you work at the fish deck."

Fantomu frowned half heartedly at her. "I happen to l-like the fish deck."

"Cause all of you are super socially awkward and avoid conversation at all costs," Katsu noted, poking his head into one of the doors. "Woah, this your room, guppy?"

Naruto bounced over, grinning ear to ear. "Yep! It's the coolest, right?"

Mito stifled a chuckle. It was something alright. He'd insisted on the walls being bright orange, then proceeded to 'decorate' the room with splashes of navy blue. The walls bore striking resemblance to Kaiyo, as did the furniture, which she had also allowed him to paint. Most of the furniture had actually been painted at the same time as the room itself, which had amused Mito to no end. Even if the clean up at the end of the day had involved two showers before he could even bathe, just to get the paint off.

While he had been doing that, Mito quickly employed a couple shadow clones to clean up the room a little bit, trimming it in black. To this day, she was pretty sure Naruto had yet to notice.

His bed bore little resemblance to an actual bed, and was a bit more like a cave. Or perhaps a blanket fort. With the help of a few sticking seals she had originally given him to put stuff up on his walls, he stuck a few pillows and blankets together, and to the walls that flanked his bed, making a sort of cave to sleep in. The entrance was mostly barricaded, and he usually just wriggled his way in underneath the blanket barricade. The blankets were mostly orange or navy, but a couple were black. Same with the pillows. The frame had been delicately painted along with the rest of his room.

"It's very orange," Kawako offered, taking a peek in herself.

Fantomu glanced in. "It looks like Kaiyo exploded in here."

Mito didn't quite manage to suppress the snort. That was a fairly accurate description of Naruto's train of thought.

"Kaiyo's very pretty," Naruto told her solemnly.

"That she is," Fantomu managed with a straight face. Kawako and Katsu faired slightly less well, but managed to keep their faces from rebelling when Naruto glanced at them suspiciously.

"The empty bedrooms are anything but the first two doors. The bathrooms are clearly marked, so you shouldn't mistake them," Mito said after a moment, taking pity on Kawako and Katsu. A shadow clone appeared beside her a moment later, and it walked out of the house, closing the door behind it, "We'll need groceries, as we haven't been here for a few weeks. Pick a bedroom and settle down, dinner will be ready in two hours, so entertain yourself until then."

There were nods all around, and Mito smiled. "And Naruto, do remember you do have class tomorrow, and I will be coming in for a lecture on summons."

Naruto nodded excitedly, practically bouncing in place. Or rather, he was bouncing in place.

"Class, you're very lucky, instead of me lecturing you about summons, Mito Uzumaki offered to come in and teach you instead. As I do not have a contract personally, she will also be demonstrating the jutsu."

"Kaa-san's the coolest!" Naruto shouted immediately, grinning from ear to ear.

Iruka smiled and shook his head as Mito came in, a polite smile in place.

"Good morning children. Yes, Naruto, I can see you, please sit down."

Naruto sat down immediately, a more bashful expression on his face.

"Now, can anyone tell me an example of summons?"

Sakura's hand shot into the air, and Mito nodded to her. "The sannin are famously in possession of the Toad, Slug, and Snake contracts!"

Sasuke raised his hand too. Mito nodded to him. "The Uchiha clan has a hawk and a cat contract! Nii-san and cousin Shisui have a crow one though!"

Mito smiled. "Those are all wonderful examples. Yes, Naruto?"

Naruto, who'd been waving his hand like a mad man, grinned and stood up. "The Uzumaki clan is in possession of the kraken contract! Kaa-san can summon them! And I'll learn how to do it too someday! And Kakashi-nii has dogs I guess, but krakens are cooler."

Mito knew Kakashi was right outside the window, and could practically hear him wilting. Perhaps if he wanted to get Naruto on his side, he should actually try spending time with him, and summoning the pack around him.

"Yes, very good Naruto," Mito said, amusement lacing her tone. "If you don't mind, Iruka, I'd like to bring them outside to show them my summoning contract. Unfortunately, krakens aren't exactly small, or can move about on land, so summoning one here wouldn't be a good idea."

Iruka nodded. "We predicted that. There is a temporary pond set up outside for this purpose."

Mito nodded. "Alright then, come along children, we have a kraken to summon."

Naruto beamed, practically teleporting to her side. The other children followed, only slightly slower.

Once outside, Mito faced the children. "To summon a creature requires a sacrifice of blood. Generally, shinobi will bite their thumbs to draw blood." She demonstrated, drawing some blood and showing her bleeding thumb to the class. "There are handsigns, but I will not show them to you, as this jutsu can be rather dangerous. And I haven't needed them in a few decades." She winked at the children, then slammed her hand down on the surface of the water, the summoning seal blossoming beneath her hand. "That, children, is the seal to summon a creature. Push in chakra, and…" a massive poof of smoke, and Kaiyo was suddenly occupying the artificial pond.

Iruka blinked at the sheer size of the kraken, and a few of the shyer children hid behind others.

"HIII KAIYO!" Naruto shouted excitedly, waving will all the might in his little arm.

Kaiyo waved a tentacle back at him. "Hello Naruto, how have you been? Are these your classmates?"

Naruto nodded excitedly. "Yeah! Kaa-san's showing us summons!"

Kaiyo laughed, the sound startling a few of the children. "I am certainly an interesting way to teach children, Mito. Especially non-Uzumaki children."

Mito just smiled. "With Uzushio reentering the world, they might as well get used to it."

"Indeed," Kaiyo said, a slight purr entering her words.

**(A/N) **_**I was suffering cause of school all day today, so you get school here.**_ **The poll for SDC's spot will end this Saturday, to be replaced with the one for TLG's spot. So be warned about that. Kay, so I have a vague idea that would be a little bit like this story in that it would involve a time-traveling Mito and a tiny Naruto, except Kushina would be involved and stuff. Anyone interested? **


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N) Where this fic will end has already been chosen, which will be at the end of the pre-genin era, before Naruto becomes a genin. Don't worry, that's a ways off, and I'll give you the option at the end for a second book following up to the invasion. This fic is entirely gen, as there are mostly children involved, and Mito isn't the type to remarry or even date anyone other than who she married, even if they're dead. Guest: Thank you ever so much! Personally, the fluff is my favorite part, but I'm a serious sucker for adorable mother/son fluff. The Lilo n Stitch references are always fun to add. Thank you once more!**

"Mito-sama! Mito-sama!" Kawako shouted, running in. "You wouldn't believe what I found!"

Mito poked her head out of the kitchen. "Yes, Kawako?"

Kawako snorted at the flour streaking both Mito's face, and her hair. "Ah, right, so I did find the food coloring, but look at what else I found!" She proudly displayed a pair of clip-on fish earrings. "It's Uzushio jewelry!"

"What?" Mito asked, coming fully out of the kitchen.

Kawako snickered at her thoroughly caked in flour clothing.

"Yes, I know my clothes are covered in flour, Naruto got a bit over excited with the flour."

"I'd say they either let you talk to fish, or breath underwater. It's hard to tell."

"What're you talking about?" Naruto asked, poking his head out of the kitchen. "Oo! What're those!"

"These, guppy," Kawako said, holding up the earrings where he could see them. "It's Uzushiogakure jewelry. We knew some most likely existed, since, well, they're very pretty and foreigners liked bringing home jewelry, but like, I found some!"

Naruto bounced up, jumping so he could see better. "They're fish!"

"That they are," Mito agreed, ruffling Naruto's hair and sending up a small cloud of flour. "You need a bath later, kid."

"You both need a bath," Kawako pointed out, amused. "I'll put these away and you guys can finish whatever you were doing in the kitchen."

"Making cookies!" Naruto chirped excitedly, running back to the kitchen.

"I don't think he realizes tomorrow is his B-i-r-t-h-d-a-y," Mito spelled out the last word in case Naruto was listening in. A tactic she used successfully both with him, and her own kids.

Kawako looked intrigued. "Are we doing anything?"

Mito smiled mysteriously. "I'll tell you later."

Kawako nodded, continuing down the hall with the earrings.

"Ooh! Lookie here!" Naruto shouted. Mito entered the kitchen again to find the five, soon to be six-year-old, holding up a fox cookie cutter she vaguely remembered being in a present from Hashirama.

"We can find some space for it I'm sure," Mito assured him, taking the cookie cutter and scanning the rolled out dough for a space large enough for the fox cookie cutter. "Oh dear, it looks like we have to wait for the batch in the oven to be done, we don't have any more room."

Naruto pouted, but set the fox cutter on a pile of other cookie cutters.

"Remember Naruto, we still have a good 15 pans of cookies to do," Mito reminded him. "That's a lot of room for all of the cookie cutters. Why don't you find one of the small ones you like, and we can slide it in right here."

Naruto started poking through the pile of cookie cutters he'd dug out of the cupboards, looking for a smaller one.

The timer beeped, and Mito quickly checked the cookies in the oven. They were ready to come out, so she pulled them out, setting them on top of the oven, and placing one of the cookie sheets of raw cookie dough in the oven.

Naruto's head popped up from behind the counter. "Ooo! We can put more cookies on the sheet now!"

"Yes we can," Mito agreed. "I'll transport these ones to the cooling rack, and you can start pulling off the excess cookie dough from the cut outs over there."

Naruto nodded happily, carefully starting to seperate the cookie cut outs. Mito quickly transferred the slightly cooler cookies from an earlier tray, placing them on a cookie rack, already full of other cookies. The big plan with all of the cookies was to frost some of them, then take them, and some of the unfrosted cookies over to the nearby orphanage for the kids. The kids could help decorate more cookies if they wanted, or just eat some of the already frosted ones. What Naruto didn't know, was that Mito had convinced said orphanage to be the host for a collective birthday for the kids that had their birthdays in the months of August, September, October, and November. Including Naruto.

She helped Naruto carefully bring over and arrange the cookies on the now open tray, getting as many cookies as possible on the tray.

"Fox cutter!" Naruto cheered when they had transferred all of the cut out cookie dough bits.

"We have to roll it out first," Mito pointed out, picking up the rolling pin.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, pulling a handful of flour out of the bag and sprinkling it on the counter top before patting it down and incidentally spraying it everywhere.

Well, Mito figured that really, they couldn't get much more flour on themselves anyway, and the kitchen was already covered, there was no need to stop him.

She rolled up the remaining cookie dough from the last batch of cookies, kneaded some of the cold dough from the fridge into it, then plopped it down in the middle of the flour, incidentally sending up a cloud of flour. She waved it away from her face, then set to work rolling it out while Naruto lined up cookie cutters for her to cut cookies with.

Two hours and a break for dinner later, Mito placed the final cookie tray in the oven.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, waving his arms in the air. "Almost done!"

Mito chuckled. "Indeed. Now, you need a bath before the flour on you develops sentience and takes over your body."

Naruto screeched. "OH NO! It's gonna eat me!"

Mito laughed. "Not if we get it off fast enough! Go on, you take a shower or two to get the flour off, put your clothes in the hamper, then you can have a bath. Is that alright?"

Naruto nodded excitedly.

She ruffled his hair, bringing up a cloud of flour. "I'm going to get this cleaned up, then take a shower of my own. When you're done, you need to go to sleep! We have stuff to do tomorrow!"

Naruto grinned widely, and Mito handed him a bit of leftover raw dough. "Run along now and hurry before the flour decides to eat your soul!"

Naruto screeched delightedly as she tickled him, then sent him down the hall.

"I'm not going in there until the flour's gone," Bachi noted, leaning on the door frame. "Sorry, but you have no idea how hard it is to get flour out of feathers."

Mito chuckled. "Of course. I helped make this mess, I can clean it up."

"I-I can help," Fantomu offered, shimmering into being.

Mito smiled, moving to the sink to wash her hands. "It would be appreciated."

Fantomu nodded, disappearing presumably to find a broom.

Mito began collecting the cookie cutters they had used, placing them in the sink alongside the rolling pin and cookie sheets.

The timer beeped, so Mito took the cookies out of the oven, placing the tray itself on the cooling rack. They weren't in need of it any more, so she didn't need to transfer the cookies.

Luckily, the kitchen was fairly easily swept up and the flour gotten rid of.

"Do you want to decorate a few cookies while I shower and get this flour off of me?" Mito asked, gesturing to the racks of cookies. "Not too many, but I would like to have at least a few frosted for the adults."

Fantomu started scanning the cooled cookies. Selecting a kraken one, she glanced around the kitchen. "Frosting?"

"A seal on top of the mixer," Mito said, poking her head back in. "Don't use all of it, save some for the kids tomorrow."

Fantomu nodded, unsealing some of the frosting.

Mito smiled, and quickly ducked into her room to undo her hair, which she had half pulled up for the cookie project, but was beginning to wish she had pulled up fully.

She brushed out what flour she could, then quickly showered, and got dressed in other clothes. She made a note to do the laundry tomorrow, after the party. Naruto was sure to come home covered in frosting, and the flour covered clothes needed to be washed.

When she reentered the kitchen, all five of the Uzumaki she was housing had gathered around the table to frost cookies.

"Look! Look!" Kawako said, grinning and holding up a snowman cookie with wings from what looked like a phoenix shaped cookie frosting glued to its back. "It's a fleetwing cookie!"

"You're eating that one," Mito noted. "I'm not putting that in the bag for the children."

Kawako grinned wider, and nodded happily, setting it aside.

Mito pulled up a chair, settling down and claiming a kraken cookie. "Remember, we have to leave the majority for the kids tomorrow."

"Of course," Hamako agreed calmly, holding up a multicolored fish cookie. "Don't feed tuna to fish."

"Or fish cookies to fish," Kawako agreed, laughing.

**(A/N) Go check the poll up on my profile, it has new options for you! For the love of the stars people, go break that stupid tie, I don't want to freaking bypass the first option just cause it's tied with one other option. Next time. Next time you can see the adorable children decorating cookies. That is Tenten and Lee's orphanage, if anyone's curious. **_**This has mild plot importance, I promise.**_


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N) Translation for what Mito said: "We needed cookies that were reasonably decorated that looked edible and cute for the adults." **

Naruto came down in the morning to find Mito loading cookies into bags, then into a seal.

"You decorated without me!?" He sounded so offended and heartbroken that Mito had to turn around to see a matching face.

"But you get to decorate cookies with the other children," Mito said reasonably. "Our guests from Uzu don't get to do that, and we needed some cookies for the adults to eat while you children decorated yours."

Naruto thought about that for a while, then nodded. "Okay! That sounds alright."

Mito smiled, ruffling his hair. "Go bring your hamper to the laundry room, and get dressed, by then we'll probably be ready to go, alright?"

Naruto grinned and nodded, darting away towards his room.

Mito quickly loaded the remainder of the cookies into the seal, tucking the paper into one of her many pockets. One advantage of the modern clothing, it involved a multitude of actual pockets. Previously she just placed seals on the inside of her sleeves to use as pockets, but she liked this better. Closer to Uzushio clothing, which was always full of hidden and not so hidden pockets. Uzushio loved their pockets.

Naruto came down a moment later, dressed up in a tiedye of colors, which Mito supposed would ultimately assist in not seeing any stains Naruto might end up with by the end of this cookie decorating adventure.

They made it to the orphanage in record time, right on time for the celebration.

"Happy Birthday!" the caretakers and kids shouted cheerfully as Naruto and Mito entered.

Naruto immediately teared up, and Mito crouched down to hug him. He clung to her, sniffling up a storm, but Mito could feel the overjoyed grin pressing into her shoulder.

Many kids crowded around, adding their small bodies to the hug, which only made Naruto tear up further, and grin even wider. Mito wondered how his cheeks would hold up to the grin.

After the sniffles had died down, Mito shed the light coat which was mostly soaked with Naruto's tears, exactly the reason she'd worn it, so she didn't have a wet shirt the entire time. She drew a seal out of her pocket, waving it in the air. "Who wants to decorate cookies?"

Tiny hands shot into the air all around her, and she chuckled. "Alright then, no pushing or shoving, be nice to each other, and I have plenty of cookies for all of you, alright?"

With tiny nods all around, she drew a bag of cookies out, spreading the cookies across a provided table. Frosting and knives soon followed, along with sprinkles and piping frosting.

The kids were happily all over it, and Mito quickly shunshined out of the hoard of children, over to where the adults were standing. She pulled out the bag of decorated cookies, offering them to the women. "We decorated these last night."

One of the matrons chuckled, drawing out a snowman cookie with red hair. "Were any snow men left for the children?"

Mito chuckled as well, acknowledging the sheer amount of red-headed snowman cookies. "My guests assisted me in decorating them. They got a bit overzealous."

"This is a cute octopus," one of the younger matrons said, holding up the cookie decorated like Kaiyo.

"That is a kraken, actually," Mito corrected. "There are a fair few in here. It was certainly interesting to decorate them to resemble my summons."

"It appears we forgot to introduce ourselves," the eldest matron said apologetically. "My name is Nikuko."

"Kakuno," another said, biting into a candy cane cookie. "Mm, you made good cookies."

"Thank you," Mito said, smiling.

"Sakishi," the one who had mistaken the Kaiyo cookie for an octopus said, biting off a tentacle.

"Otano," The youngest of the four said, nibbling on one of the redheaded snowmen.

"Look! Look!" A smaller child ran up to them. Mito turning immediately to them. "I made a Hokage cookie!"

"That's a very good cookie," Mito praised. "What would be your name?"

"Naomori!" He chirped, offering the cookie to her.

"No, no, you made it, you get to eat it," she replied, smiling. "Besides, if I ate a cookie from everyone, that'd be bad for my tummy, and I'd get sick. But you can still come up and show me."

The kid looked a bit crestfallen, but agreed with her logic, running back off to his friends.

"Naomori's a good kid," Otano said, smiling. "He loves to help."

"They all seem like such sweet kids," Mito agreed. "They seem to be enjoying the activity."

"Why wouldn't they?" Kakuno asked, cooing at the kids, sitting there and looking so focused. "Have you seen this much sugar in once place like ever?"

Mito chuckled. "You have a point. I certainly hadn't seen this much sugar before I was preparing it."

"Your kid seems to be getting along well with the others," Sakishi noted, smiling at where Naruto and two other children, a brown haired girl with twin buns, similar in style to Mito's own, and a black haired kid with a braid. "Tenten and Lee are good kids."

Mito leaned to her left slightly to see around one of the other kids. "It looks like they're all decorating weapon cookies, isn't that cute?"

"You ninja have a weird definition of cute," Nikuko said, shaking her head.

Mito shrugged. "Maybe it's you civilians that have the weird definition of cute. Uzushio's people, the active shinobi and not, consider little kits running around trying to stab each other cute."

"Fine, the crazy people have a weird definition of cute," Sakishi said, snorting.

Mito laughed. "I suppose."

Tenten, Lee, and Naruto ran up to them, two cookies each held in their tiny hands that were covered with frosting.

"What do you have there?" Mito asked them, smiling kindly. Tenten had two very interestingly colored kunai, Naruto had a kunai and a relativly Kaiyo colored kraken, and Lee had two snowmen, one with red hair, the other with brown.

"I have kunai!" Tenten chirped, displaying them proudly. One was orange, the other red, although both had other colors on the edges and as occasional swirls where Tenten had swapped colors but used the same knife. As was to be expected with children, they were absolutely caked in glittery sprinkles, including the adorable weapon ones Mito had found.

"I made you and Hashirama!" Lee said, just a bit shyly, offering the cookies to her.

She smiled at the cookies. The brown once certainly bore at least a little resemblance to her late husband, with longish brown hair, red armor, and a clear smiley face on. The red-haired one was impressive, with an outfit closely resembling the one she was wearing at the moment, although the hair was straight from one of their history books, the twin buns with little sprinkles for seal tags was adorable. "They're very impressive," she told him. "They look just like the real things."

Naruto pushed his in front of Lee's when the kid froze in what was apparently sheer joy. "I made a Kaiyo and a kunai!" They were both colored similarly, orange and dark blue swirling together in random patterns. The kraken had managed to get away with just a light dusting of sparkly red sprinkles, but the kunai was more heavily coated with sea animal sprinkles, weapon sprinkles, and plenty of glittery sprinkles.

"They're very cool," Mito said, ruffling his hair.

The kids seemed pleased with the outcome, and snacked on their cookies on the way back to their seats.

"They're awfully cute," Otano said, giggling. "Almost cute enough to offset the mess they're making."

"Luckily," Mito noted. "I know a cleaning seal or two. That'll make it a barracuda-ton easier."

"Oh thank kami," Sakishi said, sighing. "Was not looking forward to trying to wrangle the kids into cleaning up."

"The seal especially came in handy last night after we finished the cookies," Mito agreed. "Naruto got a bit excited with the flour…"

"Oh dear," Kankuno said, hiding a smile behind her hand and taking another cookie. "An eager helper is he?"

"You have no idea," Mito said, laughing. "He loves to help, but can be a bit over enthusiastic sometimes. There's a good reason I just let him have free reign of his room, closed the door, and came back when the noise stopped."

"I don't envy you having to get all the paint off of him though," Nikuko said, biting into another cookie. "Sounds like a nightmare."

"It was," Mito agreed, shaking her head. "But the room and furniture got painted to his liking, and that's really all that matters."

"No kidding," Otano said, smiling at the kids. "They can be annoying sometimes, but the little buggers are cute. Have to admit that."

**(A/N) I do too much thinking, seriously. Would anyone care if I made a discord server? **_**You have no clue how long I have procrastinated asking that question. **_**Anyway, is there any particular scene you'd like to see? We got a whole bunch of time before the Uchiha mess happens, and will have a bunch of time after that until he makes genin, so I'll want a stock pile of things I could put in here. I could manage on my own, but I want to see what you think!**


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N) I mentioned having a discord server and guess what happened? **_**I don't think anyone realized I wanted an answer to that, people.**_ **Or just didn't see it. Haha, realized it was Choji's birthday, so uh, there might be two chapters of more cute birthday filler ahead. **

Mito opened the letter she had received, smiling at the invitation inside. The Akimichi were so kind.

"Naruto, do you know Choji?" She asked, glancing up at Naruto, who was drawing seals on papers across from her.

Naruto blinked up at her. "He's in my class, and friends with Shikamaru. And goes home with Shika and Ino."

Mito smiled. "Well, it's his birthday tomorrow."

Naruto grinned. "We should make him a pie! He likes peach pie a lot, and it's peach season now!"

Mito smiled. "Would you like to finish up your seal, then work on your chakra control while we pick peaches?"

Naruto nodded so fast his head was almost a blur. "Yeah!"

Mito smiled. It was good he had recovered from the nasty fall from a tree yesterday. It had been quite the fall, and she hadn't been there to catch him, as she had been making dinner. He came in crying with quite the goose egg on his head. The Kyuubi had it taken care of within a few minutes, but he didn't leave her hip for the rest of the night, stubbornly clinging on.

Naruto hurried up his seal, presenting it to her for checking.

"Very good Naruto, but be a bit more careful when drawing the lines, you don't want to have to use a ruler again, do you?" Naruto hated using rulers, called them boring and annoying. But it was a fairly good way of getting his lines straighter.

Naruto shook his head so violently the clip that had been holding back his bangs from getting caught in the ink while his head was bent so low it almost touched the paper flew off to the side. Mito smiled, ruffling his hair. He was looking more and more like Minato all the time. Or, the pictures she'd managed to find of Minato.

"Find the clip, and we can go pick peaches," Mito said, putting the letter away, and setting it on the side table.

Naruto quickly scrambled in the direction the clip had flown, running his hands over the floor to find it. Mito made a mental note to find brightly colored clips. Perhaps they'd lose less that way. Naruto mostly just borrowed hers, which were usually a dark brown or black, contrasting her red hair.

Naruto finally found it, holding it up triumphantly before giving it to her. Mito obligingly used it to clip her own bangs back just a bit more securely. Her clips worked far better on her silkier hair, as opposed to Naruto's baby bird fluffy hair, where they usually fell out with too much movement. Mito could shake her head, or have a spar, or a training routine, as the case usually was, and they would remain as firmly in place as her shirt if she hung upside down from a tree branch. Which is to say, very firmly.

"Alright, outside we go," Mito said, chuckling as Naruto grabbed her hand and tried to drag her out of the door. She let him drag her outside, and over to the peach trees Hashirama had grown so long ago. Indeed, there were many clearly very ripe peaches hanging from the branches.

"Start slowly," Mito reminded him as he made to run up the tree. As cute as Naruto was, he had a bad tendency to run straight into danger. A tendency he unfortunately shared with her late husband.

Naruto puffed out his cheeks, but obligingly lay down at the bottom of the tree, put his foot on the tree, and started trying to get the right amount of chakra.

Mito left a shadow clone for him, and sent another shadow clone to go find good peach pie recipes. She should have one somewhere, she had a recipe for most things. She walked up a tree and started picking perfectly ripe peaches, pulling a basket out of one of her many seals to carry the peaches in. She figured Naruto would be over at some point to ask about a basket, so she unsealed a second one, dropping it to the ground where it was in clear view of someone approaching the tree she was in.

She made a mental note to ask if the Akimichi wanted some of their peaches. Last year she had made all of the peaches they managed to harvest into preserves, jelly, dried slices, and a variety of other preserved foods she could make with peaches, but Hashirama had been somewhat overzealous with his trees, and Mito was fairly confident she could feed an army of Uzumaki and still have some left over. Even with Naruto, who loved snacking on dried peach slices and preservatives, and the other Uzushio shinobi, who similarly loved peaches, the stores were barely dented. Yes, she would have to get the Akimichi to take them. Or see if the Nara wanted some for their deer. Perhaps the birthday would be good, she could see if the clan heads there were interested at all. Although it was her birthday in a few days, it wouldn't hurt to let Naruto lead the kids on a peach picking spree, teaching them all a vital skill at the same time. It would give the adults some peace at least.

Unfortunately the Uzushio shinobi were all out on missions at the moment, and wouldn't come back for at least a week, so she couldn't ask them to chaperone. She'd have to ask the clan heads if they had any older children willing to supervise the peach picking.

Her clone was the one to fetch the basket she had dropped, nodding to the original before going back to supervising Naruto.

A rush of memories alerted her that her clone had found a very nice peach pie recipe, and she almost had enough peaches to make it. Experience told her at least three fourths of the peaches Naruto found that were ripe were going into his stomach, but he had probably not eaten enough to make the pie. Mito collected a few more just in case, and hopped out of her tree.

She found Naruto already munching on a peach with four in his basket. "Naruto, come along, we have a pie to make."

He lit up and jumped out of his tree straight into her clone's arms, then hopped to the ground. Her clone dismissed itself, and Mito weathered the memories with practiced ease.

Naruto displayed his basket proudly. "I got five peaches!"

Mito made a show of inspecting them. "I only see four in there. Where could that last one have gotten?"

Naruto blushed, and took another bite of his peach.

Mito chuckled and ruffled his hair. "It's alright, we got plenty of peaches for the pie, and some to cut up and cover in sugar."

Naruto lit up, grinning as he took another bite of his peach.

Mito leaned down to his level. "Y'know Naruto, if you hadn't eaten that peach already," she tapped him on the nose playfully. "We could've cut that one up and covered it in sugar too."

Naruto giggled, batting her hand away. "But I was hungry!"

"You can't be hungry for another two minutes?" Mito asked, ruffling his hair again, clipping his bangs out of the way again. "Come on, we have a pie to make for your friend."

Naruto grinned and nodded, careful not to send the clips flying. For which Mito was grateful. It would have been a nightmare to try and find the clips in the grass.

Mito quickly led him into the kitchen, carefully setting the flour out of his reach. They did not need another cookies mess.

Naruto found the sugar while Mito found the recipe. "Pull out two sticks of butter, the salt, the vinegar, an egg, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. And some sprinkles, but we'll use those later."

Naruto found all of the ingredients, carrying them carefully over to the counter one by one.

Mito quickly freed the peaches of their skins, cutting them into neat slices to drop into a bowl Naruto had pulled out. "Very carefully, you can put 1 1/4th cups of sugar into the bowl, Naruto. Then stir, and I'll add the flour and spices."

Naruto nodded happily, carefully measuring out, then dumping in the sugar, taking the spatula Mito handed him and stirring the peaches and sugar together. Mito quickly dumped in the flour and spices, then when it was mixed together, set the bowl aside.

She pulled out another bowl, placing in the flour, salt, and sugar, again letting Naruto stir. She mixed up the wet ingredients, sent Naruto off to wash his hands, and got the dough started.

Naruto came back with freshly cleaned hands, and she let him stick his hands in the dough to knead it and mix it together.

While he did that, she cut up peaches, putting them in a bowl, and covering them in sugar. The best way to eat peaches, obviously.

Mito waited until Naruto went to bed to assemble the pie, carefully laying the strips of dough on top of the pie in a seal, quickly loading it with sprinkles, and setting the seal to go off when Choji opened the gift.

Morning came all too quickly, and in no time at all, Mito had Naruto all dressed up in semi formal clothing, the pie carefully placed in a cardboard box that was then decorated with a bow, and Mito carefully holding said box.

The Akimichi clan head welcomed them at the gate, directing them into the back where Mito could already hear the gleeful shouts of children and sense the powerful chakra of the clan heads.

"The gifts go over there," Chouza said, pointing to a table. "Naruto, Choji's over there, you can go say happy birthday."

Naruto grinned, running over to the other children.

Mito could spot Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara was napping in the tree while Ino Yamanaka yelled at him to get down, and Kiba Inuzuka happily sat with Hinata Hyuuga and a slightly older Hyuuga boy, watching Akamaru get pets and head scratches from Hinata, who seemed to be having a ball.

Mito glided over to the clan heads and their wives. "Our children seem to be getting along quite well," was the first thing she noted.

"Indeed," Shikaku noted, eyeing her. This was the first time they'd met, as Mito had mostly been staying out of the political situation to raise Naruto.

"Mito Uzumaki," Mito said, smiling and offering him her hand. She'd been going by just her maiden name for quite a while, it just made it easier on Naruto.

"Shikaku Nara," he replied, shaking her hand. "This is my wife Yoshino."

Mito inclined her head shallowly to the woman, who inclined her head in return.

The other clan heads introduced themselves, somewhat arbitrarily, given Mito already knew their names, but it was polite.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio split off almost immediately, their wives copying them, Fugaku and Shibi struck up a conversation, Tsume joined the wives of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and Mikoto came over to chat with Mito.

"Naruto looks like he could be Minato's clone," Mikoto chuckled, watching the two play. "Except with Kushina's face."

"I believe that is on purpose on his part," Mito noted, smiling. "Sasuke has rather fluffy hair, does he not?"

Mikoto nodded. "The fluffiest I'm afraid. Difficult to tame. Although it's almost nothing compared to his cousin Shisui's."

"The only person with fluffier hair then Madara was Kagami," Mito noted. "Would they be related?"

Mikoto inclined her head. "Kagami is related to Shisui directly. Similar to how Naruto looks almost just like Minato, Shisui looks almost like a younger copy of his great grandfather."

"Oh?" Mito asked. "Kagami's son never did look much like him, which I consider a tragedy."

"That line's hair is rather fluffy and curly," Mikoto agreed. "As a child, Shisui was happy to submit to hair ruffles, unfortunately, as a teenager, he is far less likely to let you ruffle his hair."

Mito chuckled. "All we can do, unfortunately, is get all the hair ruffles in we can while they're young and still let us do them."

Mikoto smiled at her youngest son, nodding towards a darker corner near the children, in which lurked her teenage son Itachi. "Itachi has such beautiful silky hair, from Fugaku's side, if you would believe it. My hair is a bit fluffier, but with it so long, it's hard to tell. As a child however, I sported almost the exact haircut as Sasuke does now."

"Most Uchiha seem to," Mito noted, giggling. "That, or their heads are spiky fluff balls. Madara's hair was almost unmanageable, I don't know how he managed to keep it so clean."

"And that is why only Uchiha who have silkier hair grow their hair out," Mikoto agreed, chuckling. "We can never copy what Madara managed and keep a mane of hair like that clean and perfectly spiky."

"I highly doubt anyone will be able to," Mito said, laughing. "My birthday is in a few days, would it be possible for you to drag Shisui along when you come?"

Mikoto looked almost surprised she was inviting them. "Sure, may I ask why?"

"Well, I plan to let the children pick peaches while the adults talk," Mito explained, smiling. "We have many peach trees, and they could learn tree walking while they did it. While I could set shadow clones to chaperone, they pop fairly easily, and, well, I would prefer it if actual people supervised."

Mikoto smiled. "Of course. I'm sure the children will love Shisui. He is quite personable. I'll have to get Itachi to supervise with him, or Sasuke will probably hate me for a good few days."

"Ah, a Uchiha's love for his sibling," Mito sighed. "How cute."

Mikoto hummed in agreement. "Oh look, it appears Naruto has convinced Choji to open your gift."

Mito looked over to the children, and sure enough, they were crowded around the box her and Naruto had brought.

Choji carefully took off the bow, opened the box, lit up like a tiny lightbulb, pulled out the pie, and promptly got a faceful of sprinkles.

Mito chuckled, and after a few seconds, the kids all started laughing like mad, Choji included.

"That was a cute surprise," Mikoto noted, smiling broadly at the children.

Mito nodded. "I made the top of the pie, the crust that goes over the top, into that seal."

"Very impressive," Mikoto praised. "Was it difficult?"

"Well, cutting all of the pieces took some time," Mito admitted. "But it was worth it. They're so happy."

"Yes they are," Mikoto agreed, smiling.

**(A/N) Haha, right, so uh, I made the mistake of thinking this would only be one chapter… So, uh, it's still one chapter. Just a super long one… Cause I can't afford to split this chapter for reasons I refuse to tell you. **

** /peach-pie-recipe-all-butter-pie-crust/** **is the recipe for the peach pie I let them make. **


	13. Mito's Birthday gift

**(A/N) Surprise! It is actually Mito's birthday today, and that's what spawned this. I looked up japanese dishes for this, and picked fun ones for the clans to bring. **

As Naruto was still sleeping, Mito took the opportunity to start decorating without a tiny 6 year old running around and getting under her feet.

She quickly hung up all of the decorations that were high up, working her way down. Naruto trotted in almost an hour later, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Morning Kaa-san," he murmured sleepily, finding leftover breakfast.

"Good morning Naruto," Mito greeted, finishing up the last touches on the decorations in the living room. Although it would mostly be outside, there were always problems that could arise and they could have to move inside.

"Naruto, why don't you take these baskets and put them outside?" Mito offered a scroll to him. "They're for you and the other kids to pick peaches will the adults talk."

Naruto grinned, taking the baskets. "Can we cut some up and put sugar on them?"

"Only if you get Shisui or Itachi to do the cutting," Mito allowed. "Don't make it too hard on them please, I asked Mikoto for their assistance, they didn't volunteer for this."

Naruto nodded quickly. "I'll be nice!"

Mito smiled, ruffling his hair. "Thank you Naruto."

A couple of hours later, the Uchiha family arrived, bearing Hitsumabushi. **(A dish that's basically grilled eel on top of rice)**

Mito smiled, meeting them at the gate. "Thank you for bringing food, you're the first to arrive."

"Thank you for inviting us," Mikoto said, smiling politely. She gently shifted the dish she was holding to one side, nudging a gangly teen that looked like a clone of Kagami forward. "This is Shisui."

Shisui dipped into a quick bow. "It is very nice to meet you, Senju-sama."

"Just Mito is fine for now," Mito said, smiling. "I am inflicting multiple children upon you after all."

Shisui chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head in a very familiar move.

"Come in, Naruto's in the back setting up the baskets," Mito said, moving to the side and gesturing into the Senju grounds.

Shisui lit up almost immediately, bouncing right past her, towing Itachi and Sasuke behind him.

Mito chuckled following behind at a far more sedate pace. "The dining table is that one there, the dessert table is separate and over there."

Mikoto set the dish she had brought on the table, arranging it briefly, then turning back to her husband and Mito. "When are the others set to arrive?"

"Soon," Mito said, shrugging. "I gave an approximate time, they are to arrive at any time within that time set."

The Akimichi arrived next, bearing piles of Anpan buns. Mito smiled. She knew she had done well when she had given them the dessert assignment. When scrolls were pulled out, and several other dishes were brought out, Mito chuckled, having figured that would happen, and directed them to the proper table.

Naruto grinned as his friend Choji showed up, happily dragging him over to where Sasuke was trying to run up the tree while Itachi supervised.

"Choji, Choji, look! See these baskets!? We get to pick all the peaches we want!"

"But they're all the way up there," Choji said, looking up at the peaches.

"Yeah, but look!" Naruto said, concentrating and putting his foot on the tree. It stuck, so he put his other foot on the tree, and started walking up the tree, eventually reaching the upper branches. "Sasuke's doin the weird way. Kaa-san says the only proper way to do it is to sit at the bottom and slowly work your way up."

Choji looked at Sasuke, who was still failing to run up the tree, and sat down at the base of the tree Naruto was in. "How do you know how much chakra to use?"

Naruto shrugged. "Too little and you slip off, too much and you get blown off. Sasuke keeps using too much and nearly blowing holes in his poor tree."

Choji looked a bit nervous as he put his foot on his tree, only for it to slide off.

"Just a bit more chakra!" Naruto encouraged, picking a peach and biting into it.

Choji stared at the peaches for a while, then put his foot on the tree, then the other, and walked up the tree to sit near Naruto and claim a peach as his own.

Sasuke growled at them both getting it before him, and redoubled his efforts.

"I keep telling you Teme!" Naruto called down. "If you don't sit down and take the time to feel out the chakra needed, you'll never get it!"

"I'll get it just fine," Sasuke snapped.

"No you won't!" Naruto sang, biting into his peach.

"Naruto, don't purposely aggravate Sasuke please," Shisui said, sighing. "You have had far more practice then he has at this."

"So?" Naruto bristled. "Choji got it like right away!"

"He's an Akimichi," Shisui pointed out. "And there is food in that tree. Of course he got up there faster than Sasuke."

**(A/N) There you go! A short birthday gift for Mito! Have a nice day!**


	14. Chapter 14

**(A/N) Hi. Uchiha mess is for the next few chapters. We'll see how long it decides to take. I estimate at least 3 chapters, maybe more. If you people need a break from serious for a chapter, inform me in reviews, and if there's enough, I'll provide a fluffy break chapter. This'll be a lot more serious than previous chapters. **

Mito checked her hidden gear, seals in her pockets, a seal with kunai and shuriken in each of her sleeves. A phasing seal, a prototype, could only be held for a few seconds, but would be enough for her purposes, and a camouflage seal to ensure she wouldn't be stopped. Naruto was at school, would be for the next few hours, the Uzushio shinobi were packing and had their own things to do, so she was not going to be bothered. She had something to take care of.

She activated the camouflage seal, striding out of the compound and to the Uchiha compound across the village.

She made it there in somewhat record time, no one stopping her to chat because of the seal. She faced the wall that she knew led to Fugaku's office, activated the phasing seal, walked through the wall, and leaned against the shadowed wall.

"Fugaku," Mito said, startling the Police Chief as she rose from the shadows to lean against the wall of his office.

"Senju-sama," Fugaku said respectfully, the title clearly grating on his nerves.

"Fugaku, Mito is fine. Senju-sama was my husband." Mito separated from the wall, walking over to him. "You know what's going to happen if you continue down this path of a coup." Something she had honestly just guessed about, with the increased ROOT and ANBU activity around the Uchiha compound and Itachi and Shisui's clear nerves.

"Civil war," Fugaku muttered unhappily. "We're doing our best, we don't want that to happen."

Mito sighed. "If you're so intent on this coup, I have an alternative. The leadership of Konoha already knows about the coup, and I've caught wind of a contingency plan that includes your entire clan being slaughtered. I have a far better option." Something she had only found a few days ago, over hearing Danzo whispering to Hiruzen about it during a council meeting.

Fugaku was outright glaring now. "What is it," he growled.

"Uzushio. They would be willing to take in your clan. Or at least some of them."

Fugaku looked understandably cautious. "What's in it for you?"

Mito smiled slightly. "Uzushio enjoys having new blood. You would be able to remain as a separate clan, and keep your own traditions, of course. For me? My son doesn't lose any protectors." And of course, Uzushio got assistance in rebuilding ties with the rest of the world, and affirming their alliance with Konoha.

Fugaku raised an eyebrow. "We're outright banned from interacting with him."

"You shouldn't be," Mito replied evenly. "There was a reason Tobirama gave you control over the police."

Fugaku frowned. "He hated us."

Mito snorted. "Far from it. The police protect the children, do they not?"

Fugaku nodded slowly, cautiously.

Mito sighed. "Fugaku. Tobirama entrusted the police to the Uchiha because you were the only clan he trusted to protect the children with your lives. He trusted no other clan with the children."

Fugaku looked almost stunned. "H-he did?"

"He didn't love your clan, but he acknowledged your capacity to love and your ferocity with which you defended that love. You should've seen him fight to have you in charge of the police." Mito smiled softly. "Perhaps you should be grateful, Hashirama almost put you in charge of the school system."

Fugaku wrinkled his nose. "I'll pass."

Mito smiled wider. "Tobirama had assumed that as well. And of course I knew that was going to do nothing for the Uchiha's bonds with Konoha and the Senju clan."

"Why are you here anyway," Fugaku asked suspiciously. "Besides informing me of the stupidity of the coup. I assure you I already know that."

Mito shrugged slightly. "The Uzushio shinobi leave in six days. I will acquire permission for some of your clan to go with them back to Uzushio by tomorrow. Up to a third is what I project being able to excuse going to Uzushio. Select those going quietly and quickly. I suggest those who are most vocal about the coup, but I likely don't have to tell you that."

Fugaku shook his head. "I am not stupid."

"Of course not," Mito assured him. Uchiha were so sensitive to threats to their pride. "One last thing."

"Hn?" Fugaku grunted, falling back to Uchiha grunting in this time of stress.

"Keep an eye on Shisui, I believe he is in danger."

"In danger how," Fugaku asked, eyes narrowing as Mito opened the door to exit the office.

Mito didn't turn back to face him. "Your clan is not the only one that knows of Shisui's abilities." With that cryptic message, she exited, striding past the confused officers which had not seen her come in. Fugaku strode after her, stopping her as she exited the station.

"Can you not give a clearer answer?" Fugaku asked impatiently.

"I would prefer not to do it here," Mito said, half glancing back at him. "Perhaps I will see you at some other point." She continued down the street for a bit, only stopping when she saw Itachi heading towards her. "Itachi."

"Mito-sama," he greeted, bowing shallowly. "Father."

Fugaku inclined his head to his son.

"Itachi, I need you to do something very important," Mito said firmly. "Don't let Shisui out of your sight. Get him to stay at your house if possible. If either your mother or Shisui protests, Kagami should solve their problems." With that even more cryptic statement, she disappeared into the crowd, activating her camouflage seal to disappear.

"Father, who, or what, is Kagami?"

"He was an Uchiha," Fugaku replied, frowning. "He disappeared one night and his body was found a day later without his eyes floating in the Naka river. It was ruled suicide."

"Isn't Shisui related to Kagami?" Itachi asked, brows furrowing.

"Yes. Directly," Fugaku muttered. "That's what's worrying me."

Itachi properly frowned, staring at the spot Mito had disappeared. "I will fetch my cousin. You inform Mother?"

Fugaku gave a short nod, and the two split.

Mito strode into Hokage tower, heading straight for a minor office. Well, not that much of a minor office, given it was Shikaku's, but it would do.

"Shikaku," Mito said, entering after a knock.

"Could at least warn me you're coming," Shikaku yawned. "It's been a while Mito."

"Indeed," Mito said, inclining her head. "I require a favor."

Shikaku sat up slightly, narrowing his eyes and steepling his fingers. "What is it?"

"I require permission for about a third of the Uchiha clan to go with the Uzushio shinobi to assist in the rebuilding of Uzushio. I trust you know why." He was too smart to not know why Mito required the order.

Shikaku inclined his head. "Of course. I trust you have talked this over with Fugaku?"

"Of course." Mito replied, standing proud.

Shikaku wrote for a few minutes, then handed the paper to Mito. "I trust you to copy it yourself. Get a copy into the archives, and one to the Nara compound. One goes to Fugaku, and one to the Aburame. Keep the original yourself."

Mito nodded briskly, sweeping out of the office, leaving a very tired Nara in her wake. What else was new, however.

She waited until she had reached the safety of her home before making the copies using a seal, and making four clones to deliver the papers. Shikaku needed his copy to prove he had written it, Fugaku to prove the order was actually happening, and the Aburame to back them up. The Aburame were a logical clan, and Mito knew that Shibi knew something was wrong. Now it was just a matter of pointing him in the right direction. Chouza and Inoichi would follow Shikaku, and the Hyuuga didn't give a barracuda, but would side with the Uchiha when it came down to it. Dojutsu clans would not ignore a case of bloodline stealing, afterall. If she was right about what was going on.

"Hey kaa-san," Naruto said, waving as he came in. "Why are the wards activated?"

Mito smiled, standing and ruffling his hair, tucking the order out of sight. "No particular reason, guppy, just me being slightly paranoid. They'll be active for a few weeks."

Naruto nodded absently, wandering into the kitchen for a snack. "We didn't get any homework today, can I go play with the fish instead?"

Mito pursed her lips, but nodded. "Alright Naruto. Don't drown."

"I can swim y'know," Naruto pointed out, munching on dried peach slices.

Mito chuckled. "Yes, I know, but still be careful. And leave the peaches here, they aren't good for the fish to eat and you know it."

Naruto puffed out his cheeks in a pout she knew he'd learned from Sasuke and Shisui, but left the peaches on the table when he ran out of the door.

Mito chuckled, picking up the dried slice bag and popping one in her mouth. "Maybe I am being paranoid. But who can blame me?"

**(A/N) Mito was being cryptic for a good reason. Shisui is not the only one being watched by ROOT. So, yeah, quite a bit heavier than the usual stuff I write, huh? I made a discord server if anyone's interested, the code being pnQAF39. If any of you know MHA and have discord, please do join me, I require an MHA planning buddy or two. Can't find anyone to help me with my new MHA ideas. So that's a bit of a problem. Seriously tho, come join me. **


	15. Chapter 15

**(A/N) The Uchiha are going into timeout. They need to take a while to cool off. I thought of that randomly and now can't stop thinking it. As this is discussing Kagami and what happened to him, again, this will be darker then previous chapters. But don't worry, we'll be back on track for fluff in another chapter or two. Yes, I did a flashback. I felt it was appropriate. Also, you should like, see the weather here, perfect for this chapter. **

A couple of days later, while Naruto was at school, Itachi and Shisui dropped by for a chat.

Having been expecting them for at least two days, Mito had pulled out peach preservatives, knowing Shisui's fondness for them.

"Told you we should've come sooner," Shisui hissed to Itachi as they sat down, the teen quickly claiming a fork and stabbing a peach slice.

Mito chuckled. "I will admit I have been expecting you. I expect you want to ask me about Kagami." A flicker of chakra, and the room was warded so well that the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to listen in if he was standing right next to the house.

Itachi nodded solemnly. "I checked our archives, suicide but suspected murder."

Mito inclined her head. "That is correct. Suicide, although it would have been murder had he waited even a little while longer."

"What happened?" Shisui asked after the silence stretched for just a tad bit too long.

"I only know part of the story," Mito said, frowning slightly. "And I fear that only Kagami knew the whole thing. But I will tell you what I know."

_Mito was carefully embroidering protection seals into a new kimono, the delicate swirls looking little more than simple decoration. A knock on her front door, without the warding seals alerting her of an enemy had her confused, she wasn't expecting anyone that evening. _

_She set her project to the side, and went to open the door. She was greeted by a rather soggy Kagami, one eye missing, the other blown wide in terror. Blood poured from several wounds, and the boy was paler then a ghost. "Kagami!" She said in shock, quickly ushering him inside and locating a medical kit from inside her seals. _

"_N-no, y-you can't help t-this time." The boy was shivering hard, the shaking disrupting his words and making him stutter. _

_Mito's face hardened, already plotting plans of revenge. "Who, why, and what the heck happened that I can not fix you up Kagami?" _

"_P-poison. Not o-one I know, it's u-untraceable, and w-will p-probably destroy itself a-after I am d-dead," the boy stuttered, not bothering to rub his own arms to warm up. He clearly had already decided he wasn't staying long. "I apologize for the mess, but I must do one thing. I am dying and I know it. I don't have much time, so please don't delay me." _

_Mito could hear the tone in the boy's voice that meant she could do nothing but help with the one thing he needed to do. "Alright. What do you need from me." _

_Kagami reached up, fingers digging into the socket of his remaining eye. "Keep this safe. Don't let it fall into any other hands. Not even my clan. Tell no one about this, please." With those final words, his eye came out, and he held it out to her. "Take it and seal it away." _

_Mito carefully took the eye from him, knowing better than to stop him. A quick seal later, and the eye had been stored away. "Say hello to Tobirama for me. Hashirama as well." _

_Kagami nodded tiredly, turning to leave. "Tell my clan I'm sorry it had to end this way. Goodbye Mito." _

"_Goodbye." _

"You fear that could happen to me." A statement, from Shisui.

"It would be likely," Mito admitted. "I presume you have a mangekyou?"

Shisui gave a short nod.

"Kagami did not outright tell me who stole his eye, but I have my suspicions," Mito sighed, pausing to eat a peach slice. "Danzo is the biggest suspect right now."

"The elder?" Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The elder," Mito confirmed. "He's been trailing me for weeks. Shisui, you also have a tail. They, of course, are left outside wondering why they can't hear anything."

Shisui inclined his head. "Are we doing nothing about him?"

Mito sighed. "I don't have enough political clout quite yet to challenge him. In addition, I would prefer it if Naruto was fully capable of defending himself in case of an attack."

"So it'll be a few years," Itachi guessed.

Mito nodded. "Shisui, I would prefer it if you went with the Uchiha going to Uzushio. Danzo can't reach you there, and you will be better protected than you ever were in Konoha. Uzushio itself is very safe, safer than Konoha ever has been, especially now that it has risen from its own ashes."

Shisui sighed, glancing at Itachi. "Alright. If it's really the best option we have right now. Let's do it. I'll go to Uzushio."

"I'll go with you," Itachi said immediately.

Mito smiled softly. "I'll have to leave you to your own devices from here. Stay safe and watch out for each other's backs."

Shisui managed to stuff a couple more peach slices into his mouth before Itachi dragged him off. He waved cheerfully as Mito disabled the wards. Some of them, anyway.

She put away the remaining peach preservatives, going back into the living room to find Kawako waiting for her.

"Yes Kawako?"

"Those kids, they're trying to take the world on their own shoulders," the zoxaen noted.

"That they are," Mito agreed, sighing softly. "I wish they wouldn't, but I can't stop them."

"We'll help take that burden off their shoulders," Kawako promised. "Perhaps saddling them with some genin would help."

Mito snorted. "Please, it'd just make them go grey early. And they're too young anyway. Shisui is barely 16."

"Maybe you're right," Kawako sighed reluctantly. "Well, we'll do our best anyway."

"Thank you."

"It's no problem."

"Naruto, you're back early," Mito noted as Naruto ran in, panting slightly. "What brought about the run home?"

He hurried up to her and whispered in her ear. "I saw creepy blank masked dudes!"

Mito activated the wards with a flare of chakra. "Really?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah! He was following me, and I told him to stop it, and he didn't stop it!"

Mito sighed. Now her child was under scrutiny. "Alright, here's what we'll do. Continue on like nothing is happening, but don't remain anywhere for too long, and for the love of the ocean, don't go anywhere alone guppy."

Naruto nodded quickly, obviously filing the information away for later. He would remember, Mito was sure of that.

"You're safe within the compound, I know every one who moves in the compound, but outside, please be careful."

Naruto nodded again, smiling. "Can I go climb the peach trees?"

Mito smiled. "Alright. But don't do it for too long, we have things we need to do tonight."

Naruto grinned, running out to climb the trees in their backyard.

With Naruto tucked into bed, Mito ticked off another day on her calendar, counting down the days to the Uzushio shinobi's leaving. It was nice having extra hands around the house, but it was time to them to leave, bringing the more hot headed of the Uchiha plus Shisui and Itachi with them. Of course she had okayed the entire plan with them and Semari and Mofu before she even spoke to the Uchiha.

"Don't worry too much," Fantomu said, fading into visibility next to her. "The Uchiha will be welcomed with open arms in Uzushio. I believe the village is even preparing a celebration for them."

Mito chuckled, recalling her own memories of celebrations in Uzushio fondly. "Of course. We wouldn't have it any other way. I can't help but worry though. So many things could go wrong before they even leave."

"We'll help make sure nothing happens," Fantomu promised. "We're all keeping an eye on Shisui when we can, ROOT are not the only people trailing him."

Mito chuckled again, sighing tiredly. "I thank you for that. I should sleep. Have a good night Fantomu."

"You too." She replied, staring at the calendar for a bit longer before disappearing and presumably going to bed herself.

Mito surveyed the lines of peach preservatives taking up space in her cupboard. Some would go with the Uzushio shinobi, of course, but she had also decided to let some leave with Shisui, who she knew loved them and would certainly eat them. Her choice made, she started sealing up lines of the preservatives, separating them into two scrolls, one for the Uzushio shinobi, and one for Shisui. Of course Shisui's had less then the Uzushio shinobi, he may be a teenage boy, but he wasn't five Uzumaki. All of whom seemed to have at least some degree of an advanced metabolism.

"I would hope one of those is for us," Katsu noted, poking his head in. "Also can I have a bag of the dried slices?"

"This scroll will be for you," Mito agreed, tapping the scroll she had for the Uzushio shinobi. She handed across a bag of dried slices.

"Wonderful," Katsu decided, disappearing from the cup board. Mito chuckled, getting back to her sealing.

"For me?" Shisui gasped, happily accepting the scroll.

"We have plenty," Mito reminded him. "So yes, for you. Maybe don't eat them all at once though."

"Of course not," Shisui said, sounding almost offended. "I have some common sense."

Mito chuckled. "Of course, of course."

**(A/N) Yay, cuteness. Took me a while to decide on actually doing a flashback honestly, but I think it fits. Next time is aftermath n stuff. Right, so I have a poll up, please go vote, I'm tired of the freaking tie, also discord server. pnQAF39 is the code. **


	16. Important

**(A/N) While this seems a somewhat surprising decision, I assure you it is anything but unthought out. I am, I'm afraid, under a lot of stress. I'm sorry I took so long to inform you, but I will be taking the month of June off from updating. I will be back in July, back with properly scheduled updates. Again, I am terribly sorry, I know you were probably looking forward to some updates, but I feel like I need to do this. No, there won't be an update tonight. I am sorry, but will see you again in July. This has been posted on all my stories, I apologize for the sudden slew of emails. **


	17. Chapter 17

**(A/N) Hello! Miss me? Some aftermath here, although next update should be adorable. Here we see the appearance of war leader Mito. Like in KHU. It's brief, but don't worry, we'll see more of her. **

"I'm glad you were still able to have a birthday," Mito noted to Mikoto. "Small as it is."

Mikoto hummed in agreement. "I may not have reached this at all without your intervention. I thank you for that. Despite having to deal with a very upset Sasuke on a regular basis."

"Is he still throwing a fit about Itachi going with Shisui to Uzushio?"

Mikoto sighed. "Yes, he refuses to talk to either of us under the assumption we made Itachi leave."

Mito frowned slightly. "I was planning a trip to Uzushio in a month or two, you may inform him that I would be willing to take your family, or just him, if that is easier for you, with me. He can ask Itachi then."

"But he won't go if he doesn't start acting better," Mikoto said, nodding. "Thank you."

"Call it a birthday present and we're good," Mito joked slightly, smiling. She lightly elbowed Mikoto in joking.

"You basically catered this entire event," Mikoto replied, elbowing right back. "I'd say you're just fine. Plus bringing Naruto gets Sasuke off of my back.

"Isn't much of an event," Mito said, scanning the crowd of half the remaining Uchiha clan plus the other clan heads and their children.

"Perhaps not," Mikoto agreed. "You still provided a good two thirds of the food for this."

"Naruto was quite excited to help," Mito said, smiling. "He enjoys cooking a lot."

"Sasuke never did have any interest in the kitchen," Mikoto looked rather wistful. "Itachi loved helping as a small child, before he became a genin. Then he never had time. I don't hold it against him though. Hopefully being in Uzushio will help him in a way I was never able to."

"They'll certainly try," Mito promised.

"Thank you," Mikoto replied quietly, closing her eyes for just a brief moment.

Mito was well aware of the political fall out that came from having a good half of the Uchiha clan, including two of its most powerful members, leave for Uzushio. She hadn't quite expected to be called in to face Danzo only four days after they left, and two days after Mikoto's birthday. If anything, she'd expected the call sooner.

"Danzo," she greeted, fairly cordially, for how she actually felt about the man.

"Senju-sama," came the calm reply.

"I go by Uzumaki currently," Mito replied, eyes flashing dangerously. When dealing with the man, every word was a power play. An annoying thing, but not anything she hadn't dealt with before.

Danzo inclined his head before straightening. "You went behind the Hokage's back."

"Did I?" Mito asked. "He was fully aware of this plan from the beginning. Ask him. In addition, the clan heads were also made aware of the plan. As you and the other elders are not part of the hierarchy, you were not informed. If you have a problem with that, I am not the person to bring it up to." Mito conveniently didn't mention that she had only mentioned the plan to him after he couldn't do anything about it.

Danzo looked like he was searching for some reason to convict her of… something. He wouldn't find anything. Mito was sure of that. "Why do you have the wards around the compound activated?"

Mito, who had been turning to leave, turned back. "Because blank masked ANBU have been following me and my son. You should be glad I do not have enough time in a day to make personal warding seals. If your shinobi continue to follow me and my son, I can and will bring it up with Hiruzen. I do not wish to clash with you now, but I will if I must. I have the means to, and the will to. I am merely holding off for Naruto."

"You can't do anything," Danzo replied immediately. "I have had decades, I have built up network upon network, you can do nothing to me."

"Watch me." Perhaps a childish answer, but amusing to see his face turn four different colors anyway.

"You are a foreign kunoichi who has been in this time for a total of three years. You have little power, especially compared to mine," Danzo growled.

Mito stiffened. "I, was here when Konoha was formed. I am one of the two sole reasons Uzushio continues to trade with Konoha, and the remainder of the Uchiha clan is here at all. The other is Naruto, the child under my protection." She paused to brush imaginary dust from her semi-formal kimono. "Now if you'll excuse me, my son has a play date to attend."

She swept out the door, deliberately leaving it open. She was plenty petty enough to do that just so Danzo would have to walk over and close it.

When she arrived home, Naruto was waiting for her, all ready to go.

"You ready?" Mito asked, already knowing that the guppy was, in fact, ready to go. He probably had been for the better part of the last 15 minutes.

"Yep! All ready for my playdate!" He chirped, brandishing his bag.

"Alright," Mito said, amused. "Give me a moment to change, and we can go."

Naruto nodded quickly, plopping down on the floor to wait.

Mito quickly changed, then went back into the living room to fetch Naruto. "Alright, let's go."

Naruto bounced up immediately, cheerily following her out the door. He was having a playdate with Tenten and Lee, and the plan was to use this to invite them along on the zoo trip Mito was busy planning.

"D'ya think they figured out the storage seal?" Naruto asked as he bounced along beside her.

"Perhaps. It depends," Mito replied calmly. "I suspect Tenten has at least some Uzushio blood, so it's possible she got it, Lee is also possible. Or perhaps both are just wired for sealing without any connection to Uzushio."

"Cool!" Naruto chirped, grinning.

When they arrived, Tenten and Lee were waiting for them.

"I apologize for being somewhat late, I was summoned by Danzo and it took longer than expected."

"It's alright," Tenten was quick to reassure her. "Matron said we can go long to make up for it, as long as you're alright with it."

Mito smiled and nodded. "I have no issue. I have nothing going on for the rest of the day. We do have an offer for you. I am planning a zoo trip in a couple of weeks, and would like to invite you along."

"We'll have to ask the matron, but if she says okay we can!" Lee said, giving her a thumbs up.

"I'll handle that," Mito said, smiling. "Don't worry about it.

They nodded happily, and Naruto finally exploded. "Did'ja manage the seals?"

Tenten grinned, brandishing her paper. "Yep!"

Lee shook his head sadly.

"Don't worry!" Naruto told him. "Not very many people outside of Uzushio can manage it! And you got super far!"

Mito smiled at Naruto's back, settling down on a bench nearby. They'd do just fine.

**(A/N) Miss me? First things first, dear stars that 'watch me' from Mito was amazing to write. The sheer power in that statement is awesome. Next 1! Haha, I brought back Tenten and Lee. Next 2! (There's a lotta stuff) There is a poll up for TTDS and HCR's spots! So go ahead and vote there! Finally! (And possibly the most important thing) The Uzushio Arc can go two ways. 1st, a whole cultural event and exploration of standard Uzushio going ons. This way would involve a star-ton of oc's, given the lack of actual Uzumaki in canon, would go into a fun festival I made up for Uzushio, and would be quite a bit longer than the other option. I don't actually have an estimate for this, but it'd probably be pretty long. Second option is a cute, short, and sweet arc, go in, see Itachi and Shisui, leave again. Probably 2-4 chapters at most. I know which one I would prefer, but I don't want to make all of you slog through something you don't care about. Hence, me asking you. **

**Once more, poll, go check, sorry this was so long, and have a good existance. **


	18. Chapter 18

**(A/N) Hello! They're goin to the zoo! I like the zoo, it's fun. So you get a cute zoo trip before the Uzushio Arc. Do dinosaurs exist in Naruto? Probably not. Do I care? Not at all. Do zoo's exist? Also probably not. Do I care? Not in the slightest. **

"Now remember kids, if you want to seperate off from me, ask me and I'll send a shadow clone with you. Be careful, they can pop if hit too hard." Mito said, blocking the way into the zoo. "You each have your allowances, and that can be used for snacks or for souvenirs."

"Yes Kaa-san," Naruto said. "I remember."

"Me too," Tenten said, waving her arm.

There were nods from Lee, Kiba, and Shino, the latter two having been somewhat last minute additions, their parents being called into last minute council meetings.

Mito smiled. "Good. Come along then."

She paid for their tickets, and they entered the zoo.

"Look! Look!" Naruto said, dragging Mito by her wrist over to look at the meerkats right inside the entrance. "Look how cute!"

"Aww," the other children chorused, crouching next to the glass barrier to look at the meerkats.

Mito chuckled, looking into the habitat. The one the children were focusing on, was standing on a little log, and looking around, it's tail twitching.

"Let's go find the tigers!" Tenten shouted excitedly after they'd watched the meerkats for a while.

"Yeah!" Kiba shouted. "Then the wild dogs!" Akamaru barked happily from his head.

Mito chuckled. "Alright, the tigers are this way, and the wild dogs are next to them. If you want, afterwards we can head to the amphibian and reptile area, and see the new dinosaur exhibit."

The kids cheered, and started moving towards the tigers, which happened to be on the other side of the park. It'd be a while before they got there.

Shino quietly tugged on her sleeve, and she glanced down.

He pointed to the insect house. "May I see that?"

Mito smiled. "Of course." She quickly created a shadow clone, and let Shino wander off with it. He was such a sweet and quiet child. Not that the others weren't sweet.

Once they had arrived at the tiger habitats, the children excitedly watched the large cats for a little while, then ran off to look at the wild dogs.

"Hey look! That one's got a face on its side!" Naruto shouted, pointing at one of the dogs.

"That one has a cloud!" Lee said, wriggling slightly as he pointed at the wild dog.

Mito glanced behind her to find her clone and Shino coming back, Shino cheerfully holding a little stuffed moth. Her clone popped, and she got the memories of Shino excitedly telling her clone all about the bugs they had on display. Well, excited for an Aburame.

"Hey, kids, why don't we go see the dinosaur exhibits right over there," Mito suggested, pointing to where she could see a large blue dinosaur perched protectively over a clutch of fake eggs.

Lee was first over there, examining the plaque for the dinosaur. "Hey! It's name means Lord of the Funeral Pyre!"

"Really?" Tenten asked, pushing Lee out of the way to examine it herself. "Huh! It does!"

Mito smiled as she too checked the plaque. Indeed, Citipati, the dinosaur in question, meant Lord of the Funeral Pyre. "Very interesting."

Shino had wandered off a little ways, and was currently talking with a employee pushing around a dinosaur in a baby stroller, who had pulled out a deck of cards, and was letting Shino look through them.

With the kids thoroughly distracted by the Citipati, Mito wandered over to where Shino was.

"Look," Shino said quietly, holding up the four cards he had gotten from the employee. "They're different dinosaurs you can find at the park."

Mito smiled, both at Shino, and the employee. "Those are very nice cards Shino. Did you thank the nice employee?"

Shino nodded.

"You have a very sweet child," the employee offered.

"Oh, he isn't mine, I'm merely watching him for a day," Mito deflected. "The blond is mine, however."

The employee smiled. "Should I assume they all will want cards?"

Mito giggled. "Yes, that would be correct. Are other employees carrying different cards?"

"Yeah, anyone with an apron has them, ask and they'll happily hand them out."

"Thank you," Mito replied politely.

"It's no problem!" The employee replied quickly.

"What d'ya have there?" Kiba noticed Shino's cards, and rushed over, the rest of the herd of children following him. Or perhaps it was a stampede of children.

The employee laughed, pulling out the cards again. "Alright, who wants the cards?"

Everybody's hands went up, and the employee laughed again, handing out cards.

They found four more employees until all of them had all twenty of the cards, and had seen all of the dinosaurs in that section of the zoo.

"Alright, where are we going next?" Mito asked.

"Elephants!" Lee shouted

"Okapis!" Tenten said, hand waving in the air.

"Lions!" Naruto yelled, wriggling in place.

"Fish!" Kiba bellowed, Akamaru's bark only adding to the volume.

"Calm down children," Mito said, amusement lacing her tone. "We can do multiple things. Why don't we see the lions which are here, then go see the elephants and okapis, then pause for lunch, then see the fish and reptiles?"

There was quick agreement to that plan, and Mito managed to herd them off to where the lions were mostly lounging on sunlit rocks.

"They're so pretty!" Naruto decided, nose pressed to the glass.

"All golden and stuff!" Lee agreed.

Mito chuckled. "They're that color so they can sneak through the grasses in their home habitat."

"Is the grass yellow?" Tenten asked innocently.

"Yes it is. Very dry as well. All of their homeland is very dry." Mito explained. "They hunt in prides, which is why there are multiple here. Did you know that it's the females that hunt for all of the food?"

"They do?" Tenten looked amazed, looking back at the lions. "Which ones are the females?"

"The ones without manes," Mito said, pointing to one visible female. "The males have manes so they can show that they have power and can win in a fight. They have to be strong to keep their territory and females."

"Ooo," Tenten said, examining the lions more closely.

"Let's go see the elephants now!" Lee cheered after a moment longer.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed loudly, starting to run off towards where the elephants were, the kids trailing after him, and Mito following behind them, counting them off every so often to make sure she hadn't lost one.

"Do you know any fun facts about elephants?" Lee asked her excitedly.

"Well, I do know that younger male elephants follow older male elephants around to learn how to be a male elephant," Mito acknowledged.

"What's that mean?" Shino asked quietly.

"You'll learn when you're older," Mito said, chuckling under her breath. "I'm not giving any of you except Naruto the birds and bees talk. And even then it will be a good year or two before I even do that."

Shino blinked. "Ah. I see now."

Mito had somewhat expected that, the Aburame clan bred insects after all, and she wasn't surprised Shino knew what she had been referencing. In reference to animals anyway.

"What is it?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"I...am not the person to ask," Shino decided after a moment.

"And I'm not telling you," Mito finished quickly. "When you're older. Now did you want to see the okapis or not?"

"Yep!" Tenten said, running over to where the okapis were peacefully grazing in their pen.

"They're all stripy!" Kiba shouted excitedly.

"Are they related to zebras?" Naruto asked curiously.

"They aren't," Mito said. "Despite the stripyness, they're more related to giraffes."

"Giraffes?" They chorused incredulously.

"Yep," Mito confirmed, smiling at their ridiculous faces. "They have super long tongues like giraffes."

"Giraffe tongues are super long," Naruto agreed.

**(A/N) It's a stampede of children. It's absolutely a stampede of children. They're adorable though. If you're wondering, this is exactly how going to the zoo with many children is. I would know, I have five younger siblings. And yes, the fact about the male elephants was correct. Second half is next time. Then the Uzushio arc. **


	19. Chapter 19

**(A/N) Second half of the zoo filler! If anyone is curious, this imaginary zoo is some weird blend of the Dallas and Denver zoos, because I've been to both many times and have a very hard time working out which zoo is which. To all Kukaqui comments: *cue heavy blushing***

They ended up near the hippos for lunch. There happened to be a show while they were there, so they watched that while eating.

"How do you even train a hippo?" Naruto wondered.

"Treats and patience," Mito guessed, smiling. "Do you want to be a hippo trainer, Naruto?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "No way! I wanna be Hokage! Not work with some wrinkly old useless things."

"Dunno," Kiba said doubtfully. "Have you seen the teeth on those things? They look like they could rip you open."

"Probably could," Tenten agreed, eyeing the hippos cautiously.

"Hippos could do far more lethal damage to you then you could to them." Mito confirmed. "If you see one, I would advise not tussling with it, getting injured isn't advised."

"Don't want to go to the hospital," Lee agreed enthusiastically. "Ninja hate the hospital!"

"They hate the feeling of powerlessness that comes in the hospital," Mito hummed. "Besides that, everyone almost finished?"

A chorus of agreement, so Mito allowed the kids to get up and throw the remains away. She did the same with the remains of her own lunch, then herded the kids off towards the fish.

"_It's a chocolate chip starfish,_" Naruto whispered reverently, staring at the starfish in question.

The kids, who were scattered around the rest of the place, immediately made a beeline for the tank Naruto was standing in front of.

"Woah," came the quiet chorus.

Mito chuckled, using her superior height to look over the children to see the starfish in question. It did indeed look like it had been sprinkled with chocolate chips and they had stuck to its back. "It's very cool."

Tenten got bored of staring at the fish pretty quickly and dragged them over to see the blind cave fish. "They're blind, and live in caves!" She explained eloquently.

Mito hid her snickers, bringing a hand up to hide her smile. "They don't have eyes because they don't need any. Their surrounding are completely dark, and there is no light, so they don't need their eyes, and use other senses to get around."

"That's super cool," Lee decided. "Can ninja do that too?"

"Get around in the dark?" Mito asked for confirmation. Upon receiving it, she nodded. "Of course. There's a couple way ninja can. They can use their sense of touch, or their sense of hearing. There's a couple different ways to use chakra to sense out your surroundings, which perhaps you'll learn when you're older."

Naruto bounced in place. "You'll teach me at some point?"

Mito nodded obligingly. "I will. Perhaps when you're a genin."

Naruto beamed, and they moved on.

"It doesn't look like a horse," Kiba complained, staring at the seahorse. "Why's it called a seahorse?"

Mito didn't know that one. "I don't know, maybe it's because of their head shape? It looks a bit like a horse."

Kiba frowned at it, and Akamaru barked at him. "Yeah, Akamaru, I know. Do they always hold on with their tails like that?"

"Sometimes they pretend they're seaweed," Mito agreed. "They're very slow, so they have to rely on camouflage."

"But we can see them just fine," Kiba said, squinting at the seahorse in question.

"Well, animals have different vision than us, so when something looks camouflaged to us, it doesn't always look like that to them, and vise versa." Mito gestured to the seahorse itself. "Its shape means it looks enough like the seaweed for predators not to see it. It's camouflage is only as good as the predator's eyes."

"Kinda makes sense," Kiba decided. Akamaru barked agreement.

"What even is this?" Shino's very confused mutter reached her ears, and she walked over to see. It was a scorpionfish, and she understood his confusion.

"It's a fish," Mito told him. "As strange as it looks."

"Why is it called after an arachnid?" Shino asked, turning his head to look at her.

"Well, it has venomous spines, which is where it got its name. The venomous spines are like the scorpions venomous stinger." Mito pointed out the spines on the fish.

Shino nodded, still eyeing the fish speculatively.

"Huh?!" Lee's confused shout brought everyone over.

Mito got there first, and laughed at Lee's utter confusion over the mud skippers. "They're mudskippers."

"They skip through mud?" Naruto asked, leaning over the glass edge. She pulled him back quickly.

"Well, yes, they have modified fins on the bottom of their body, and it allows them to sort of walk in the mud," Mito said, pointing to the offending body parts on the fish. "They're really strong too, and if you watch them carefully…" she trailed off as one abruptly twisted, leaping into the air, its fin on its back opening to flash blue spots at them. "There, they do that to attract a mate. It's really hard work to throw themselves in the air like that, and they're doing it to show off."

"Woah," Naruto decided. "That's super cool."

"Weeeeird," Kiba decided. "Weirder than the not-horses."

Mito giggled at his decision. "Shall we move on? I think I saw leafy sea dragons a little ways down here."

"What're those?" Tenten asked, trailing after her. The other children soon followed suit.

Mito arrived at their tank, and pointed them out. "They're related to the seahorse, like how Okapis are related to giraffes."

"Woah," the kids said obligingly, examining the strange creatures.

"Is their weird shape for camouflage too?" Kiba asked, pointing at all the appendages coming from the dragon itself.

"Yep, they're hiding from predators and keeping themselves safe," Mito agreed, smiling fondly at the kids.

"Look, it's a huuuge crab!" Lee said, having already gotten distracted. "Look how big!"

Mito looked. "It is very big, look at that." It was huge, especially for a crab. Possibly reaching up to 12 feet with its legs stretched out. She checked the time. "Oh, we need to get moving if we want to get to the reptiles."

So she herded them out, and got them moving towards the reptiles. They were close by, although they had to pass the giraffe habitat on their way there.

"Let's feed the giraffes," Naruto suggested, pointing to the people feeding giraffes lettuce.

"Do you want to do that, or see the reptiles," Mito asked. "We have time to do one or the other, but not both."

Naruto waffled, as did the other kids. Ultimately, he decided. "Reptiles. I wanna see a big snake!"

The others quickly agreed with that logic as well, so back on their path to the reptiles it was.

"It's so big!" Naruto declared in amazement.

"You said you wanted to see a big snake," Mito pointed out with no little amusement. "That would be the biggest of snakes."

"It says it's venomous," Tenten said, examining the plaque. "A king cobra. I guess it eats other snakes in the wild."

"Cool," Lee decided, examining the plaque too.

"Guys, guys," Kiba said, pointing into an enclosure. "I can't find the creature supposed to be in here!"

Mito glanced over their shoulders, spotting the creature almost instantly. It was well hidden, glaring at her from its spot camouflaged under a few leaves. "I already found it," she mentioned off handedly.

And thus the hunt for the creature began. Tenten found it next, but didn't tell, choosing to go look at the rattlesnakes.

Lee found it next, wandering off to look at the Komodo dragons.

Then Naruto, who went to look at the eyelash viper, Shino, who went to stare down the black mamba, and finally Kiba and Akamaru, who pouted at being last, but wandered off to look at the horned devils.

"Did you know those guys can shoot blood from their eyeballs?" Mito remarked offhandedly to Kiba, who jumped back, staring warily at the creature. She stifled snickers.

"Really?" he asked, sounding almost horrified.

"Yep," Mito agreed, smiling. "They do it to scare their predators."

"That's not all they scare," Kiba muttered, staring at it.

Mito giggled under her breath and went to check on Lee, who seemed to be having a staring contest with one of the komodo dragons. "Try not to loose to a giant lizard, hm Lee?"

Lee nodded firmly, not breaking eye contact with the reptile.

Mito checked on the other kids, then the time. "Oh dear, come along guys, it's time to start heading home, but we can stop by the shop on the way out for those who still want souvenirs."

The kids looked sad, but agreed, and soon enough they were out of the zoo, and ready to head home to rest.

**(A/N) Hello! Aren't they oh so cute? First things first, it's Yugito Nii's birthday. The two tails jinchuuriki if no one remembers her. Next, this has a cover now! Go see it its super pretty! My friend Kukaqui made it for me! Finally and perhaps most importantly, there's a poll! NDSA ended, and the poll ends next tuesday, so be quick! One quick thing though, I can't seem to figure out what the second book of this series should be called, so put your movie and quote suggestion in a review! I do intend on continuing the pattern set by Lilo n Stitch, and have quotes as titles, then quoting the movie throughout the book. **


	20. Chapter 20

**(A/N) I have figured out what movie! The second one will be Lion King! Just have to figure out what quote to use… Also, anyone remember my entire spiel about the stars in… uhh… whatever chapter it was? Yeah that comes back into play. I'm not one to forget details after all. Especially not after rereading that chapter to remember how long I said it took them to reach Uzushio. **

"Trust me, they'll be safe with me," Mito assured Mikoto.

"Oh, that I trust," Mikoto agreed, huffing. "It's Sasuke's obedience I don't trust."

Mito chuckled, patting Mikoto's shoulder. "I can handle rowdy children. Do you forget who my husband was?"

Mikoto snorted. "Right. I suppose you'll be just fine then."

Mito just smiled, absently tugging on one of Naruto's backpack straps as he passed her. "Don't keep your backpack straps that loose unless you want to lose it, Naruto."

"Sorry Kaa-san!" Naruto shouted, racing for Sasuke, who wasn't paying attention, and was about to get ambushed by an over excited Naruto.

True to her prediction, Sasuke was not expecting the surprise hug from behind, and stumbled, attempting to hit Naruto automatically before realizing who it was.

"Naruto!" He sounded so affronted that Mito had to laugh. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry!"

"He doesn't sound very sorry," Mikoto noted, holding a hand up to her mouth to hide the smile.

"Of course not," Mito replied, shaking her head. "He's never sorry when it comes to surprise ambushes."

"Well, I should probably let you go," Mikoto said, stepping back. "You have a long way to go before you reach Uzushio after all."

"We'll stop halfway there like we did last time," Mito agreed. "But we should get going as soon as possible. I'll mobilize the boys. Have a good day, Mikoto."

"Have a safe trip Mito," Mikoto replied, before turning to the children. "Sasuke! Come over here and say goodbye to me!"

Sasuke shook Naruto loose, and hurried over to hug his mom. "Goodbye Mom."

"Goodbye Sasuke," Mikoto said, patting his head.

He turned and ran back to Naruto, likely intending to start a fight.

"I'll handle them," Mito assured Mikoto one more time before striding over to interrupt their impromptu wrestling match. "That is quite enough, you two, we need to go, we're losing daylight."

They separated reluctantly, still glaring at each other. She strode between them, and Naruto quickly ran to catch up with her once he noticed she'd continued walking.

"Are we stopping midway through again, Kaa-san?" He asked, running up beside her.

"Yes we are Naruto," Mito agreed, noticing ROOT agents from the corner of her eye. She quickly activated her sensing field. Yep, four ROOT agents were trailing them. She'd have to dispose of them as soon as they stopped for the night and Sasuke and Naruto fell asleep.

"Right, right, so can we pleeeaaaaase show Sasuke how cool the constellations are!? He refuses to believe there are pictures in the sky! And we can't see them in Konoha!"

Mito stifled chuckles. "Alright, but we can't see most of them properly until we pass the alarm seals halfway there. And there's a full week of traveling ahead of us."

That night, once the boys were asleep, Mito left the camp, hunting down a rabbit quickly for the next morning, then sealing it away, pausing in the clearing.

Without warning, she lunged for one of the ROOT signatures in the trees around her, easily slapping a paralysis seal on him. She would not stand for a tail, especially not to Uzushio. She was fast, she could easily drop the agents in the path of an ANBU patrol and be back before sunrise. The second one went down just as quickly, still somewhat frozen in surprise. The third put up more of a fight, but was dispatched quickly.

Fourth appeared to be slightly more skilled, and met her tanto with one of their own. A quick exchange and the ROOT shinobi was dead.

Mito cleaned her blade of blood with a spare piece of cloth, already stained with blood. That shinobi would still be dropped off with the others, an easy warning to Danzo. She sheathed the tanto, sliding it back into its scroll.

The four shinobi went into scrolls next, Mito sliding those scrolls into her sleeve storage seal, then racing through the forest, stretching out her senses to find where a Konoha patrol was, calculating where they'd end up.

Upon reaching the appointed area, she not so carefully dumped the four shinobi in a heap, then carefully wrote out a note for the shinobi who would pick up the ROOT agents.

With that complete, she slid back to the camp, remaining on watch for the rest of the night. She could survive without any sleep. She had done it many times before, and could do it again.

Naruto, as was usual with him, somehow managed to tell she hadn't slept that night. "You good Kaa-san?"

Mito smiled, patting his head. "I just had something to take care of. Nothing for you to worry about, I'll be just fine."

Naruto eyed her for a moment, he really was getting so big, then nodded, going back to helping pack up their camp.

He really was growing up too fast, Mito reflected. In three years he'd be a genin. Speaking of which, she needed to remember to have Hiruzen set her up as an active jounin in the next year or two. It wouldn't do for her to not have anything to do while Naruto was off running missions. And she couldn't possibly let her skills get rusty. That certainly wouldn't do.

"Are we past the alarm seals yet?" Naruto asked, for perhaps the fourth time that morning.

"Not yet," Mito replied calmly, having said the same thing the last four times he asked. "Soon though. You'll be able to tell when we pass it, trust me Naruto."

"Why are you so excited to be past them anyway?" Sasuke grouched. "That's the fourth time you've asked this morning. I don't see what's so exciting about some alarm seals. They just sound annoying and loud."

"The alarms aren't for us," Mito corrected gently. "We won't hear them at all, but Uzushio will be alerted to who we are. They are to keep Uzushio safe."

"And besides, after the barrier, the stars'll be distorted properly and we can see the stars!"

"We can already see the stars dobe," Sasuke disagreed, flicking Naruto's forehead.

"That is true," Mito said, grabbing Naruto's shirt when he went to fight back. "However, the seals that protect the area around Uzushio distort the night sky just slightly, brightening some stars, dimming others. The Milky way is far more visible in this area."

Sasuke just gave the traditional Uchiha grunt, falling silent.

Mito smiled as she sensed the barrier of the seals coming up. Time to see if Naruto would pick it up when they passed it.

Gauging by his stiffening in surprised, she guessed he had, although Sasuke seemed blissfully unaware.

"Was that the alarm seal barrier?" Naruto asked immediately after passing the barrier.

"That it was," Mito replied, smiling. "We are now within a week's travel of Uzushio."

Sasuke looked rather confused. "What? That's all?"

"I did say the alarm seals were for alerting Uzushio, not us," Mito agreed cooly. "I am a sensor, and Naruto has the potential to be one as well, so we both sensed the barrier. Although he only realized that was what it was until it passed. The fact that you didn't sense it merely means that if you wanted to be a sensor, you'd have to work a lot harder then say, Naruto, who has the genetic potential to be a sensor from both sides of his family."

"I thought cousin Shisui was a sensor," Sasuke said suspiciously.

"He is," Mito agreed. "And a very good one. While Kagami, who I suspect is either his grandfather, or great grandfather, was a very good sensor, I'm fairly sure a fair amount of Shisui's skill with his sensing is through hard work and practice."

"Uchiha are kinda pushed towards being able to do it at least a bit," Sasuke admitted after a moment. "Makes it easier to do genjutsu without the sharingan."

She patted his head. "Uzushio has the best sensors in the elemental nations. I'm sure any Uchiha there will have plenty of assistance if they so wish on their sensing."

Sasuke gave a noncommittal grunt, and fell silent.

"Haven't seen Uzushio whole and above the surface in a while," Mito mused as they approached. "It's interesting."

"It's big," Naruto decided. "And super pretty."

Mito had to agree with Naruto on that one, the houses of Uzushio glittering with thousands of seals on them, reinforcing them against the wind, water, and weather. Walls were kind of redundant, with the tidal waves and whirling tides that gave Uzushio its name protecting it from harm.

A single bridge spanned the ocean, rebuilt once more, stretching high above the whirlpools. People were crossing it, and Mito spotted two people with black hair waiting at the base of it.

"Look!" Sasuke shouted, pointing to the two people. "Nii-san and cousin Shisui are waiting for us!"

"That they are," Mito agreed calmly, smiling softly. "On we go to meet them."

**(A/N) Okay so I'm kinda moving, and therefore won't be replacing this as soon as it finishes. I'm going to leave it blank until we're properly settled at our new house. In the meantime, feel free to check out the rest of my still updating stories, wink wink nudge nudge… Depending on a few things, including when exactly we're going to the new place, UMN's spot may also have a short pause. I'm merely warning you now. I was thinking about it, and decided to tell you before I forgot. Also I refuse to tell you plans for Lion King, I'll hint, but no plans for you. **


	21. Chapter 21

**(A/N) Now we check in with the Uchiha that left for here! I think I'll try and finish the book this chapter, so it was nice seeing you all here! **

Mito smiled as they approached the two Uchiha teens. Both looked almost younger in a way, less worry clouding their eyes and creasing their faces.

Shisui waved cheerfully once they were in earshot. "Hello! Haven't seen you guys in a while!"

"Hiiiii!" Naruto exclaimed, bouncing forward to greet him.

Sasuke was apparently giving poor Shisui the silent treatment, and ignored him in favor of hugging Itachi. "Missed you," he mumbled into his brother's jacket.

"Rude," Shisui pouted. "What'd I do to get the silent treatment?"

"You stole his brother," Mito said, amused.

Shisui gasped in affront. "I did not! Itachi! Tell your crazy little brother that I did not steal you!"

"Shisui didn't steal me," Itachi repeated dutifully, patting his brother's head.

"Don't believe you," Sasuke said, face still firmly in his brother's shirt.

Shisui wilted. "How could you? Are you so cruel as to assume I stole my best friend from his little brother!?"

Sasuke turned his head to stick his tongue out at Shisui. "Yes."

Mito stifled a chuckle as Shisui wilted further. "Perhaps we should head into Uzushio?" She suggested mildly. "We can't be waiting here all day."

Itachi attempted to start walking towards Uzushio, only to almost fall over as Sasuke pulled an impressive limpet impression.

"Sasuke," Itachi tried, attempting to pry his brother off himself. "We cannot go into Uzushio with you wrapped around my legs like that."

Mito snorted, remembering several similar incidents with her own children. She reached down, grabbed Sasuke under the armpits, and hoisted him up, holding him in the air in a pose reminiscent of Lion King. Unhindered, Itachi started walking, and Sasuke started wriggling fiercely, attempting to get free.

"Lemme go!"

"Once we get to Uzushio maybe," Mito replied, not at all phased by the wriggling. She had long practice containing children who did not want to be contained.

Naruto started laughing. "Kaa-san caught you Sasuke! Now you'll never escape!"

This only made Sasuke wiggle harder, which didn't bother Mito in the slightest. She started walking towards Uzushio, still holding Sasuke in the air despite his attempts to kick her.

"So," Shisui said, making a valiant effort to ignore Sasuke. "How's Konoha managing without half the Uchiha clan?"

"Well, with the lack of police, the Hokage abolished the frankly stupid rule about only Uchiha being in the Konoha Police force," Mito said, smiling. "It's about time."

"That's good," Shisui sighed, relieved. "Hey Sasuke, Aunt Mikoto and Fugaku-sama still doing fine?"

"Hn!" Sasuke declared emphatically, aiming a kick at his poor cousin's head. Shisui dodged, of course, but still gave Sasuke a full on betrayed look.

Mito chuckled softly, placing Sasuke down as they reached Uzushio itself. He immediately ran to where his brother was, latching on around the waist this time so Itachi could walk still.

"It's so different," Naruto muttered, staring at it in wonder. "Looked cooler underwater."

Mito ruffled his hair. "Above water means more people can see it though. And that for the first time in a decade or two, Shio is seeing the light."

"I think I'd miss the sun," Shisui decided, eyeing the sky. "And being able to spit fire. That'd be a serious downside to being underwater all the time."

"Indeed," Mito said, amused. "That would be a downside to it."

"But Uzushio isn't usually full of Uchiha," Naruto pointed out.

"But we still can light things on fire," Mito reminded gently, remembering full well the repeated incidents with the fire seal. "That aside, how have you been settling in? Both of you."

"They're thinking of giving me a genin team in a couple of years!" Shisui said proudly. "Itachi's sulking because they won't even consider it until he's over 18."

Itachi glared at his cousin. "I am not sulking."

"Enough boys," Mito interrupted before it could become a full argument. "Is the rest of the clan settling in well?"

Itachi nodded, still glaring at Shisui. "They're doing well, and most have been going out on missions."

"Missions are good," Mito said, scanning the veritable sea of redheads with some black dots. "It seems they're out in the village itself."

"Yeah, the Uzumaki are very welcoming," Shisui agreed, smiling softly. "Hungry? This store here's really good."

"Not spicy?" Naruto checked, and Shisui laughed.

"No, not spicy," he confirmed. "Unless you want it to be and order something spicy. Then it's your own fault for getting something spicy."

After getting food, they wandered around for a while longer.

"How's Mofu doing?" Mito asked, eyeing the tower. "And Semari."

"Mofu handed leadership over to Semari," Itachi said, looking away from a book display. "Said he was getting too old for the position."

"Then jiji is really too old for the position," Naruto decided. "He's super old!"

Mito stifled a laugh, although Shisui made no such attempt. "Yes guppy, he's very too old for the position. But no one else can really take it, so he stays there."

Naruto frowned. "Couldn't you take the seat?"

Mito smiled, ruffling his hair. "I have one thing I have to do before I can become a Hokage, and I'm afraid that isn't possible right now. So Hiruzen will have to hold on for just a bit longer." She tapped him on the nose, and his face screwed up. Mito chuckled.

Shisui looked at her quizzically for a moment, but didn't question it.

"Mito, Naruto! I didn't know you were going to visit!" Mito looked over to spot Kawako, making her way through the crowd to get to them. "How are you guys? Oh, hey Shisui, Itachi, is that Sasuke?"

"It is Sasuke," Mito agreed. "And we're doing fine. We just arrived."

"It's cool seeing everything together!" Naruto told her, beaming.

"Is it?" Kawako asked, grinning. "I'm glad you think so!"

Mito chuckled. "How are the others? Fantomu, Bachi, Hamako, and Katsu?" She glanced around, although fully aware she likely wouldn't spot them.

"I think Fantomu's at the fish deck again," Kawako said, tapping her chin with a finger. "I think most of the others are all on missions. But we're all doing good. If missing your cooking."

"Kaa-san's the best cook!" Naruto declared, thrusting his fist in the air.

"No, my Kaa-san's the best cook!" Sasuke argued, frowning at Naruto. Apparently Mikoto's honor was more important than his limpet impression, because he stopped hanging off of poor Itachi, and puffed up in front of Naruto.

"They're both really good cooks," Shisui compromised. "Although Aunt Mikoto doesn't make peach preserves."

Sasuke's face was priceless, Mito had to admit. "Nii-san, you'll agree with me, right?" Sasuke turned puppy dog eyes on Itachi, who looked extremely torn.

"No arguing boys," Mito said, deciding it had gone on long enough. "We both are wonderful cooks, although specialize in different things, so it really isn't fair to either of us to compare us."

"You should be a jounin-sensei," Kawako noted. "You're way better with kids then I am."

"Me too," Shisui admitted, pouting at Sasuke's determination not to speak to him. "Why do you hate me so much kitten?"

Sasuke just stuck his tongue out at poor Shisui.

Mito patted his shoulder. "He'll probably get over it, just give him some time." Although somehow, Mito wasn't sure he'd be getting over it any time soon, Uchiha were good at holding grudges. Not as good as Uzumaki, who lived twice as long on average, but still pretty good.

Shisui grumbled for a bit, but sighed, nodding. "I'll have to make do with only Naruto to love me," he decided dramatically, leaning on Mito, who flicked his nose. He reeled back, blinking in slight confusion.

Mito chuckled, leaning over to do it again. He dodged this time. "That aside," she said, smiling, "shall we continue on?"

"I wanna tour!" Naruto declared, staring at Kawako.

Kawako grinned, ruffling his hair. "Sure! I'd be happy to give you a tour! Mito? We good to go?"

Mito glanced at Itachi and Shisui. "You coming?"

"I believe I will go home and attempt to talk my brother down," Itachi decided, patting Sasuke's duckbutt hairstyle. "Perhaps we will join you if I succeed in little enough time."

"I'm good to go with you!" Shisui said, grinning. "And I can spend time with the only kid who likes me."

"You're being dramatic," Kawako told him. "The Uzushio kids love you."

"They only love me for my speed," Shisui fake sighed, placing a hand on his forehead.

"You love carting them around, don't try and pretend you don't," Kawako said, smacking his arm lightly.

"I would never," Shisui said solemnly, a spark of amusement in his eyes.

"Of course not," Mito said, patting his shoulder. "Shall we go?"

**(A/N) Whelp. That's the end of this. This is the final chapter, so a few things to say! **

**First, this story was bucket loads of fun to write, and I love replying to reviews! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! **

**Next! I won't be starting in on Lion King, the next in the series, until after I finish moving, to have less on my plate. That being said, I do need to know if you guys would prefer to keep Lion King as having two update days or cut it to one once I do start posting the story. I don't really care either way, but I like asking you guys things. **

**Finally, I'll miss you guys! See you on Lion King! Or on one of my other stories! Which will still be updating for those of you who need to be told that. I hope you lot have a good day/night/existence, and stay safe and healthy! **


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